“But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.” ~ Junot Díaz
Reading the news the other day, I noticed an article about an escaped Arkansas inmate who was recaptured. He had walked away from a minimum security work facility after six months of incarceration and has been missing for thirty-two years. He was just captured at his mother’s house. She told the authorities that her son was “a good person” and “very creative”. Now, all these years later, he will have to go back to prison to serve his time along with any additional time they may give him for his escape.
It seems as if our human nature is hard-wired to run from anything unpleasant. Rather than face consequences, we are prone to drop everything and run from our problems and our failures. The only difficulty with that is, sooner or later, we will still have to face up to them. We will still have to work on them. We will still have to resolve them.
As we do in our earthly lives, we do in our faith lives. When our spiritual journey gets difficult, we tend to run. That is also a part of our human nature and, I think, best captured in the wonderful story of Jonah. He was a man called by God to proclaim a message that would not be well accepted. Jonah decided not to go. God kept calling him. Jonah decided to flee from God over land and over water. We all know the rest of the story.
I do not know why we think we can run from our problems. We need to face them head on. Perhaps we run because we fear that we will have to face our problems alone. That could not be more false. We will never have to face anything alone because God will be with us always. All we need to do is ask Him to be at our side.
FAITH ACTION: Pray for all the people who are running from their fears and their problems rather than facing them head-on. If you know anyone doing so, offer to help them in their need.