Running away
Psalm 139:7 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit? Where can I run to get away from you?
One day the LORD told Jonah, the son of Amittai, to go to the great city of Nineveh and say to the people, "The LORD has seen your terrible sins. You are doomed!" Instead, Jonah ran from the LORD. He went to the seaport of Joppa and bought a ticket on a ship that was going to Spain. Then he got on the ship and sailed away to escape.
[Jonah 1:1-3 CEV]
Last week the nation was captivated by a missing woman - the "runaway bride." It was a 32-year-old Georgia woman who went out to run one evening and never returned home. After searching the area where she was running and not locating her, her fiance contacted the police and it soon became a national story. Adding to the story was the fact this couple was supposed to get married last Saturday in a large wedding with over 600 guests and several dozen in the wedding party. Several days went by with no trace of the woman until almost miraculously in the early morning hours of Saturday, her wedding day, she called her fiance from New Mexico claiming that she was abducted, taken across country, and let go. It was only hours later the truth began to emerge that the woman had not been kidnapped, but had simply run away.The aftermath of this story is being debated on television every day. Should she be charged with a crime? Should she be made to pay restitution for the resources expended in trying to find her when she staged her own disappearance? Should her fiance go through with the marriage? Does she need psychological help? The larger story is that she was doing what many of us do so often in our lives, running from our problems. The reality of living this life on earth is that we will always have problems. There will always be things going on in our lives that are not right and need to be fixed. Every day problems arise. How we respond to those problems is critical. Do we tackle them head on and work them out, or do we simply run from them hoping they will go away? Running from your problems accomplishes NOTHING. You can run, run, run, but eventually you have to stop running. When you do, you soon realize that the problems you were running from are still there, and in many cases have gotten worse. Your problems still exist and in most cases you have now compounded them in having to deal with the consequences from whatever form of escape you chose. There is only one way to handle life's problems and that is head on. Sit down, pray and ask God for wisdom and guidance, put together a plan to get victory over your problems, and then work hard each day until your problems are solved. That is the ONLY way to handle life's problems. Running away doesn't solve them--it only makes them worse! And if running away from your problems seems futile, try running from God! Many have tried, none have succeeded. Remember Jonah.
--KB
One day the LORD told Jonah, the son of Amittai, to go to the great city of Nineveh and say to the people, "The LORD has seen your terrible sins. You are doomed!" Instead, Jonah ran from the LORD. He went to the seaport of Joppa and bought a ticket on a ship that was going to Spain. Then he got on the ship and sailed away to escape.
[Jonah 1:1-3 CEV]
Last week the nation was captivated by a missing woman - the "runaway bride." It was a 32-year-old Georgia woman who went out to run one evening and never returned home. After searching the area where she was running and not locating her, her fiance contacted the police and it soon became a national story. Adding to the story was the fact this couple was supposed to get married last Saturday in a large wedding with over 600 guests and several dozen in the wedding party. Several days went by with no trace of the woman until almost miraculously in the early morning hours of Saturday, her wedding day, she called her fiance from New Mexico claiming that she was abducted, taken across country, and let go. It was only hours later the truth began to emerge that the woman had not been kidnapped, but had simply run away.The aftermath of this story is being debated on television every day. Should she be charged with a crime? Should she be made to pay restitution for the resources expended in trying to find her when she staged her own disappearance? Should her fiance go through with the marriage? Does she need psychological help? The larger story is that she was doing what many of us do so often in our lives, running from our problems. The reality of living this life on earth is that we will always have problems. There will always be things going on in our lives that are not right and need to be fixed. Every day problems arise. How we respond to those problems is critical. Do we tackle them head on and work them out, or do we simply run from them hoping they will go away? Running from your problems accomplishes NOTHING. You can run, run, run, but eventually you have to stop running. When you do, you soon realize that the problems you were running from are still there, and in many cases have gotten worse. Your problems still exist and in most cases you have now compounded them in having to deal with the consequences from whatever form of escape you chose. There is only one way to handle life's problems and that is head on. Sit down, pray and ask God for wisdom and guidance, put together a plan to get victory over your problems, and then work hard each day until your problems are solved. That is the ONLY way to handle life's problems. Running away doesn't solve them--it only makes them worse! And if running away from your problems seems futile, try running from God! Many have tried, none have succeeded. Remember Jonah.
--KB
posted by John Willis at 8:50 AM
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