Running
Running. Up the rolling hills past the apartment complex I lived in. Pushing, straining, and churning with energy longing to be spent. Different than my normal jogging that was usually so casual, so slow, so safe.
This wasn’t safe. I was pursuing or being pursued, I wasn’t sure which and was just…running. Just me…no one else…alone…racing past familiar sights but now it was all different.
A short time before I had been in my cozy apartment getting ready to pray, not an odd thing for me, a usual occurrence in my day, when it struck me that there was no God. Not a thought that I had entertained before. In fact, I had spent my life running towards and then with God. Now that this thought of “no God” struck me with such force I grabbed my coat and ran out of my apartment.
Running. On the level past my apartment and the adjoining ones and around the turn I ran. Up and down the easy hills I ran harder, pushing myself. And at some point in running I just knew…that God did indeed exist. How did I know? I just did. The brief thought that there was no God just passed from my mind. I was back on track. I could ease my pace. I was not alone. Whatever would happen in life I would run, or walk, with God.
Many have had times of thinking that either there was no God or if there were, that a God who would let happen to them what had happened wasn’t worth following.
A man named Joseph was put in prison for a crime he hadn’t committed, attempted rape. He could have become bitter, raged against God and society, and lashed out or given up. It had been a set-up and he had refused to give in to the woman, his boss’ wife, who desired him.
He ran. Past beautifully decorated rooms and out the door and away from this place of temptation. When he was caught, his side of the story didn’t matter and he was thrust into prison where there seemed little hope. But he stopped running and continued to believe that God was with him, even in prison. (Genesis 39)
Could we get past what happened…can we get past what happens? As I ran 30 years or so ago and as I have experienced difficulties since, I know that putting my trust in Jesus and his selfless sacrifice on the cross makes all the difference.
Running…yet praying, “O Lord, by your dealings with us, whether of joy or pain, of light or darkness, let us be brought to you. Let us value no treatment of your grace simply because it makes us happy or because it makes us sad, because it gives us or denies us what we want; but may all that you send us bring us to you; that knowing your perfectness, we may be sure in every disappointment you are still loving us, in every darkness you are still enlightening us, and in every enforced idleness you are giving us life, as in his death you gave life to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.” Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
This wasn’t safe. I was pursuing or being pursued, I wasn’t sure which and was just…running. Just me…no one else…alone…racing past familiar sights but now it was all different.
A short time before I had been in my cozy apartment getting ready to pray, not an odd thing for me, a usual occurrence in my day, when it struck me that there was no God. Not a thought that I had entertained before. In fact, I had spent my life running towards and then with God. Now that this thought of “no God” struck me with such force I grabbed my coat and ran out of my apartment.
Running. On the level past my apartment and the adjoining ones and around the turn I ran. Up and down the easy hills I ran harder, pushing myself. And at some point in running I just knew…that God did indeed exist. How did I know? I just did. The brief thought that there was no God just passed from my mind. I was back on track. I could ease my pace. I was not alone. Whatever would happen in life I would run, or walk, with God.
Many have had times of thinking that either there was no God or if there were, that a God who would let happen to them what had happened wasn’t worth following.
A man named Joseph was put in prison for a crime he hadn’t committed, attempted rape. He could have become bitter, raged against God and society, and lashed out or given up. It had been a set-up and he had refused to give in to the woman, his boss’ wife, who desired him.
He ran. Past beautifully decorated rooms and out the door and away from this place of temptation. When he was caught, his side of the story didn’t matter and he was thrust into prison where there seemed little hope. But he stopped running and continued to believe that God was with him, even in prison. (Genesis 39)
Could we get past what happened…can we get past what happens? As I ran 30 years or so ago and as I have experienced difficulties since, I know that putting my trust in Jesus and his selfless sacrifice on the cross makes all the difference.
Running…yet praying, “O Lord, by your dealings with us, whether of joy or pain, of light or darkness, let us be brought to you. Let us value no treatment of your grace simply because it makes us happy or because it makes us sad, because it gives us or denies us what we want; but may all that you send us bring us to you; that knowing your perfectness, we may be sure in every disappointment you are still loving us, in every darkness you are still enlightening us, and in every enforced idleness you are giving us life, as in his death you gave life to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.” Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
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