Where Do You Run?
It’s 6am and I’m walking through the dark in our neighborhood on my way to the nature center that is just a few blocks from our house to go for a run.
Now, personally, I don’t love running, but I think maybe getting out in some nature scenery will help motivate me a little bit. And so I walk up to the gate, I open, I step through this gate, it closes behind me, and I start jogging down the path. And just a few steps in, I stop. All of a sudden, I hear something.
There it is … howling.
And I’m thinking to myself, “What is going on?” And I realize, of course, this little strip of woods is where all of the coyotes in our neighborhood live.
So I just pause, and I listen, and I can swear the sound is getting closer.
It must be my mind playing tricks on me. Well, I wasn’t going to wait and find out, so I turned around and sprinted back to the gate as fast as I could and slammed it behind me. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and I realized I was right. Running through the woods in the dark is definitely motivating. You can absolutely try it, I promise you.
When we feel afraid, I think we often focus on what we’re running from, but one thing I think we fail to notice is what it is or who it is that we’re running to.
My anecdote, I was running from this vicious pack of coyotes, or probably a mama with some cute baby pup coyotes that I was terrified of. But what I ran to was the gate, because I knew once I got on the other side of that, I would find safety there. There would be a separation.
I love the example of children. I think of my son. When he’s scared, he runs up to me and he clings to me as tightly as he can and won’t let go.
I think as adults, we’re no different. We run to something. We cling to something. I want to ask you, when you feel afraid, what do you run to? Who do you run to?
Probably not out in the woods, but in relationship, when a need or desire is blocked, isn’t met. Something you really need, where do you run to?
Proverbs 18:10 tells us this,
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe.”
So church, this morning, I exhort you, when you feel afraid, make the Lord your refuge and run to Him. Let's pray.
Prayer of Confession
Father, you are indeed a strong tower.
You’re a refuge for us, God. Your word over and over makes that so clear to us.
And yet, God, we run elsewhere, God. I think of how we run to ourselves on the one hand, God. We run to our autonomy, our being right, our our own strength, our own wisdom, God. All of the things, God. We can fill in the blank there. Or on the other hand, we run to other people. Lord, in an unhealthy way, we seek dependence on man. We live out of the fear of man, and our lives become a function of the opinions of others and what they think about us.
And so God, we confess to you that we fail to run to you. We ask that as we enter into a moment of silent confession, that you would show us in our hearts where are those places that we tend to run to so that we can learn to depend on you.
