In a world that is filled with lame excuses and all sorts of shameful compromises, one is suddenly startled by the figure of someone who preferred to die rather than cling to a life saved at the price of denying Christ and his message of the Father's love. He was too clear a thinker and too honest a man to live on in a make-believe world. Anyone who doesn't take God seriously, doesn't take himself seriously. Or herself seriously. Augustine held off for a long time.
Conversion is never an easy thing.
But God, the relentless lover, kept after him. The whole of the central imagery of Thompson's Hound of Heaven is the startling comparison of God to a friendly dog who will simply not be put off or chased away. And Thompson like Augustine was talking from experience. The point is that God's call is not to a select few. God wants all.