What are you running away from? Or headed towards? Have you even really thought about it – or do you just find yourself running and you don’t even know to where?
There are several different ways of escape. If you are looking for one, you will surely find it, but before you open that door – whatever it maybe, perhaps you should stop for a moment and collect your thoughts and think. Just quiet your mind and try to gather up your thoughts.
Try and think about what has brought you to the point you are at in the first place. Is it a traumatic event? Is it a family upset? Do you feel lost and like you just “want to run away from it all?” Do you feel as though God let you down? Or perhaps you thought you had heard the voice of God and things didn’t turn out so well and now you are confused. Maybe someone has disappointed you and you are hurting and all you want to do is run away from the situation. Everything inside of you is screaming out, “ESCAPE! RUN!!!” And you know you are in flight mode.
Stop in your tracks. Calm down. Breathe. This is when you are at your most vulnerable. This is the point where most Christians become prodigals. Instead of running towards God, they run away and become disoriented, confused, angry, sad, frusturated and lost.
Watch out! You are headed right towards one of ol slewfoot’s traps and you are getting ready to step right in it! And once you step in it you’ll become all tangled up.
How do I know? Because it happened to me. Sometimes unexpected situations occur in our lives that we didn’t see coming. They are outside of our comfort zone or realm of understanding. No matter how much we try, we can’t seem to make heads or tails of it. “Why Lord? How? I followed Your rules, I did what you asked – WHY did this happen to me??!!” We lose faith in God and be it in anger or confusion or sadness we step away from Him instead of towards.
What has been your escape? Perhaps you entered into it and you weren’t even aware that you were taking that first step into the unknown. You didn’t see the “Beware” or “Danger” sign – maybe it was your own ignorance or maybe you were so tuned into your own emotions that you didn’t even see it as you passed it by. You entered a realm that was not meant for you to venture into. Perhaps at first it felt soothing. It took your mind off your situation or your problems. It seduced you and made you walk deeper still into its escape. There are so many different kinds – one for every personality. Was it drugs? Sex? TV? Alcohol? Work? A pretend world? The Internet? These are just to name a few. Like entering a spider’s web, did you get stuck in it? Did it disorient you and give you a eurphoric sensation? Did you feel accepted? Loved? Did you feel as though you were able to escape who you were? Or where you came from? Like you entered an oasis. Maybe the farther you entered into the escape the less you wanted to return to reality. You were cajooled, enticed. Usually a form of escape has some appeal to it – it just depends upon your personality, your likes and your dislikes. Deeper you walked into it until even if you looked over your shoulder, you couldn’t see your way back. The way you once knew was gone.
Maybe it didn’t happen to you but someone you love. Maybe you saw them become less and less who they were and right before your eyes they were disappearing and no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t reach them. The fact is – they couldn’t see you anymore and they didn’t want to be reached… Sometimes the only one who can reach them – is meant to reach them is the One who created them. Not YOU. But here is the thing, God has given us free will. He has given us the ability to make choices. Good choices and bad and sometimes He sits back and watches us and allows us to make mistakes. It is not the path He chose for us but He allows us to walk it. Knowing fully well it will bring us pain and regret and sorrow but hopefully more importantly it will bring us growth.
It couldn’t have been easy for God to watch Adam and Eve make the worst decision of their lives. How much sorrow and pain it must have brought to God, knowing fully well that the choice they made would not only affect the two of them but everyone throughout the course of history. He made them out of love and they turned their back on Him. We could get mad at Adam and Eve for what they did – but the truth is we all turn our back on God at one point or another in our own walks. (Ouch – that one hurt to write…)
Yet all all the while God had another plan in place. He knew what was going to happen and while I’m sure it pained Him, He already had a plan in mind of how He would unite us once again to Him. This time for all eternity.
Adam and Eve when they sinned tried to hide from God. We try to hide from God. We try to hide from situations we create. The truth is – we can’t. It’s (pardon the pun) “fruitless” to even try. Whatever escape you are trying or have walked into – it is only temporary. You can’t run from or escape from God. The consequences are not those that He intended you to experience. Guilt, sadness, regret, confusion, embarrassment – to name just a few. How many times along the pathway home did the prodigal hesitate and want to turn around and not face his father? Yet he knew that there was no going back the way he had come. He also knew that he was a different person than the person who had left his father’s house with his inheritance at hand. Hopefully he was wiser. I’m quite sure he was humbled beyond words. Every step back home must have felt heavy. How many times did he play what he thought would be the reception he would receive in his head? (And more than likely it was not the one he ended up receiving!) I’m quite sure he did not expect to see His father running down the pathway to meet him halfway! I’m quite sure he did not expect his home coming to be celebrated! He probably wanted to just disappear into the woodwork of the house due to shame and embarrassment. How shocked was he at his Father’s joyous embrace? How long did it take him to be able to receive the forgiveness and acceptance his Father so freely, graciously gave him? And how many things that his brother said to his father about him had he himself not thought?
Making your way back home is harder than any words I can write. But for every prodigal I say, keep trodding. Keep stepping. Keep walking. Keep praying. Keep looking ahead and not behind. The journey back home includes having to walk in forgiving yourself for your own transgression. There may be things along the pathway that would try to tempt you and pull you back – but they will have no hold on you, for you know that their escape is really not one of escape, but pain, regret and falsehood and entrapment. In order to go forward in life you have to walk through the pain. Pain caused to you or pain you have caused. In order to walk forward to where God wants you to be you have to realize that there is ONE reality and no matter how hard you’ve tried to hide from the reality, the reality has always been the same. It has never truly gone away. Instead of trying to escape a situation – face it! Head on! Has someone disappointed or hurt you? Forgive them! Communicate with them, they may not even realize that they have hurt you or made you feel rejected. If they DO know that they have done it and don’t care – then know that you are not responsible for someone else’s actions – only your own. This is where we learn to walk in forgiveness. When you release someone – you also release yourself. Sometimes the only thing we can do is release them into God’s good and capable hands. Its not easy to do – but sometimes its the only thing we can do.
Here is another thing… God can turn things around. Use our mistakes and bad decisions for His glory. Through my prodigal period I have learned that it is truly nothing but God’s love, His grace and His mercy and His forgiveness that has saved me. The truth is – I was NEVER good enough to earn redemption or Heaven. It is totally by His grace and love. I think on some level, I felt as though I had “never done anything bad enough.” But the truth of the matter is there is no degree of sin. Sin IS sin. The prodigal in the Bible found himself eating pig slop. I’m sure in his eyes it wasn’t possible to get any lower than that. God can take your lowest moments and be glorified through them and when it happens, you will realize that it is TOTALLY God and not anything YOU. I think God allows us to make our “bad” choices because He knows that we will grow from the experience and will be able to extend the right hand of fellowship once we have arrived back home from that journey and help someone else or have compassion and not judgement upon someone else who is going through a similar experience. So what ol’ slewfoot meant for trouble – God uses to for His glory and to draw men closer to Him.
Next time I feel like running – I will run towards God and not away, like a child who is afraid and runs into his/her parents arms for protection, I will run towards my God because the only TRUE escape one can find, is in Him. Isn’t it time you stopped running? Stopped trying to make an escape? And ran to the One who can give you what you truly need? Who knows what you truly need? He is a balm and will provide you with the peace that passes ALL understanding – just run towards the LIGHT – the light is HIM.
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