Stop Running

Cue the tears.

Y’all, what is happening over here?

First service this Sunday, as the band played Goodness of God, the tears just came.

I was ready in the 2nd service. Kinda braced myself, gripped the pew, and looked at the ceiling. Anyone else ever done that?

But the first service…Man. It caught me off guard.

And before you think we’re super spiritual and spend all day at church on Sundays, we’re not. Justin just happened to be speaking at both services at the last church he pastored, so we settled in for a few hours with old friends.

Okay, back to the point…

A picture of a child running in a field just laughing, thinking that the fun was in the chase, came to my mind. The child was oblivious and carefree, playing keep away and thinking it was the funniest game ever. But God was the one doing the chasing and He was urgently but gently saying, “Wait! Stop!”

But the tears came when I realized that the child is me and God is saying, “Stop running! That’s not how you do it. That’s not how you win.” But I like to turn it into a game of hide ‘n seek thinking somehow I win if He can’t see me. But that’s like me playing hide ‘n seek with my kids…I always know where they are. It makes no sense.

And for my kids, they don’t lose if I find them…we all win. It normally ends with a big tickle match and a pile of giggles on the floor.

So while I love that God has been running after me my whole life and has been faithful, I think He wants me to stop running. This sounds obvious, but I’m pretty sure He’d love us all to stop running and just turn towards Him and embrace Him.

How good does it feel knowing that He will pursue us until the very end?

Imagine how amazing though that pile of giggles will feel when we stop running or let ourselves get “caught”.