What Are You Running After Or From?

A pastor phoned the home of some recent visitors to his church, and a voice on the other end of the phone answered with a whispered “Hello.” The pastor said, “Who is this?” The whisperer said, “Jimmy.” The pastor said, “How old are you, Jimmy?” “Four.” “Well Jimmy, can I please speak to your mom?” “She’s busy.” “Well then, Jimmy, can I please speak to your dad?”

“He’s busy.’ “Jimmy, are there any other adults in your home?” “The police.”  “Can I speak to one of the police officers?” “They’re busy.” “Jimmy, who else is there?” “Firemen.”  “Well, Jimmy, can you put one of the firemen on the phone?” “They’re all busy.” “Jimmy, what are they all busy doing?” “They’re busy looking for me.”

Like Jimmy, some of us hide from family, bosses, relationships, the I.R.S. or perhaps even God. Maybe not intentionally, but most of us in our way have attempted to run from God. You know, like, I’m fine, I don’t need His help with my relationships, my finances or some other area of my life. Originally Adam and Eve had total intimacy with God and then one day Adam told God, “I was afraid and I hid.” Like Adam we think we can hide from God too.

What we want and what God wants can be two very different things. We might not say it, but maybe we think were smarter than Him or we can run away from Him. The truth is we’re all runners. We intentionally or unintentionally run from Him. Like Adam we run because we’re afraid. We’re fearful of the unknown. Fearful of painful circumstances. Fearful of rejection.  Fearful of consequences. Fearful to make a hard choice.

Jonah was a runner too. The Bible tells is that God directed Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to deliver a message, but Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. Jonah went 2,200 miles directly west from Nineveh to the most distant city in the known world at the edge of Spain.

When we run away from God we can run to the strangest places and regret our choices.
We might be unaware that we’re running from God, but when we do we leave the only source of wisdom and truth and our choices can haunt us later. Many of our poor choices can be traced back to running from God. We might be smart, but apart from God we’re likely to make ill informed decisions.

When we run away from God we turn our back on God’s unconditional love
we’ll look to other people to fill our love tank. So many of us spend an inordinate amount of time squeezing things out of people to get our needs met and that’s simply not helpful. Things begin to unravel.

When we run away from God we turn our back on God’s purpose for our lives. Ephesians 2:10
No matter how brilliant we are we’ll never experience God’s purpose for us until we’re following His ways and not our own.

When we run away from God we hurt the people around us.
Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” 

Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"Jonah 1:1-11

We can run from God, but we’ll never outrun him.

"Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you." Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased."

Ironically, these unbelievers were more concerned about Jonah than he was about the people of Nineveh that God called him to.

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.  Jonah 1:12-17 

The Lord will allow consequences you didn’t plan on it. When we experience painful consequences due to our own choices it is not because God is paying us back, but instead He is bringing us back to Himself.

Contemporary Christian artist Benny Hester once wrote, “I never saw God run until He ran to me and took me in His arms and held my head to His chest and said my son’s come home again.”

One day I realized I was running from God. Running to so many things that I thought would make me happy, but at the end of the day I was really running on empty. But thank God His grace brought me back to Himself. 

Maybe like me, you I realize you’re running from the only source of real hope and love. You can reach out to God and say, help me God, I’m tired of running. I don’t want to run anymore. I want to come home. You’ll be glad you did and all the angels in heaven will rejoice!