Running after Jesus

“As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” Mark 10:17
The story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus, asking what he had to do to inherit eternal life, is given in the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). But Mark’s account gives us a few insights that Matthew and Luke do not, and it’s because of these that many people think the rich young ruler is actually Mark himself (see Mark 10:21 – how could Mark know that Jesus loved the man, unless he himself was the man?).
There’s a few words here that I never noticed before: he ran up to Jesus. Jesus was on his way, leaving the city. The man didn’t want to miss the chance to talk to Jesus about this issue that was bugging him. In those days, as today, rich people didn’t run. But this young man did. Finding out from Jesus what the key to eternal life was, was more important than keeping decorum and maintaining his image. He didn’t care what other people thought, he wanted to talk with Jesus.
Are we like this young man? Do we neglect to seek the Lord if it would mean that we embarrass ourselves in front of others? Or do we take every opportunity we have to talk with Him about what’s on our mind?