Running From God

The other day while we were in the car my family and I were listening to some music. We love to listen to worship music, and Joseph's children's Cd's, and just have a good time singing at the top of our lungs. This day we were listening to Casting Crowns, a Christian band with an authentic sound and message. They tend to write songs about the church, the world, and the disconnect that sometimes takes place between the two. We were listening to a song called "Does Anybody Hear Her". Andrea and I sang this song in church a couple of months ago, and we really like the message. You can check out the original video at the link below. The song describes a young woman who is searching for significance, meaning, and beauty in all the wrong places, and all the wrong ways. The chorus asks:

"Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even know she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?"

The tag line of the song which is sung at the beginning and as the closing thought says this: "She is running a hundred miles an hour, in the wrong direction". As the song ended with this line, my 2 1/2 year old(now 3 year old) quietly asked, "What's she running from, Daddy and Mommy?" I paused to take in the moment and we replied, "She's running from God." "From God?" he asked. "From God," We replied. He sat there for a second, the wheels in his head turned and finally said, "Jonah ran from God."

At that moment we beamed and after we came down from our self-given title of "World's Greatest Parent" (Bible Edition), We said "Yes, Jonah did run from God." It is amazing how God gives us opportunities to talk with our kids about spiritual things. So my wife asked if he had ever run from God. He said, "no." Then he asked us if we had ever run from God. That must have been God's way of humbling me for the "World's Greatest Parent" thoughts. We said yes, and then then told Joseph that some day he might run from God, but if he did he should always remember that God loves you, and that you can always come back to God.

I then began to think about what had taken place, and what is it in our human frailty that causes us to run from God. It's not as if if was a surprise to God, for seemingly man has been running since the beginning, and we have never ceased to stop striding for a perceived freedom that some how always alludes us. Think about it, Adam and Eve ran from God in the garden, Jacob ran from Esau, Moses ran from the Egyptians, the people of Israel ran so many times you can't count it on your fingers, Elijah ran from Ahab and Jezebel, David ran from Saul, Peter ran from a young girl! In fact it seems like it might second nature to run, to flee, to take matters into our own hands instead of trusting the sovereign hands of our loving, Creator, God. In fact if I think about it to much it might get depressing, knowing that if they set up a Hall of Fame for the Bible, gave out "goat skin" sports coats (because we all know that Biblical character wore goat skin), had induction speeches with busts of the all time greats of the Bible these guys would all have been in on the first ballot. So what hope do I have, I've never done a miracle, been a king, or walked on water. The hope that we do have is found in a loving, heavenly father who runs faster than we do. We have an eternal God, the God who created all we see, who chases after us. He pursues us with a holy passion. He sees us sailing in the wrong direction, away from our Nineveh's, the mission fields of our life and loves us enough to send a storm into our lives so that He can get our attention, and but He doesn't leave us in the storm, He sends us a whale as a miraculous vehicle of restoration and redirection that brings us to a place of humility, and back to the place God intended for us to be, to serve, and to dwell. And where is that you ask. In the center of His amazing will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkynTSM1jFw