I Hate Running

As we near the new year, this is the time when I'm supposed to say that I'll start running everyday. The truth is, I'll do it for about a week and then remember how much I HATE RUNNING. I don't run outside because I don't like getting too hot, so when I do run I do it on a treadmill. When I'm done I always realize that I did a whole lot of work to not get anywhere. I end up tired, out of breath, and in pain.

Considering how much I hate to run, it's amazing to think how long I've been running in my own life. I have probably known since childhood that God had a different type of plan for me. As a teenager, it became more clear to me that certain traits and abilities were being placed in me for ministry. By the time I reached college age, I knew that God was calling me, and I made a conscious decision to run from Him. You see, when you are raised in the home of a minister you know better than to romanticize ministry. It's easy for an outsider to look at televangelists and pastors of mega churches and think it's all excitement and good income for one hour's work a week, but to someone who grew-up in it, it's not glamourous at all. I knew a household of 1 AM phone calls, interrupted vacations, random visitors at the house, countless hours in hospitals and funeral homes, hours of preparation for a 30 minute sermon that people would complain was too long, and two-faced church members. It was nothing I wanted to sign up for.

It was in 2011 that I realized that the God who created the heavens and the earth and everything on it and in it was the one who was pursuing me. There is no way that I can out run that kind of God. I realized that after years of running all I was was tired, out of breath, and in pain. Maybe I won't become famous or wealthy, in fact there may be a lot of lean years ahead depending on what He has for me, but I know that there are a lot of people in million dollar homes who can't sleep at night because they can't escape what the Lord has called them to.

Maybe you aren't running from a calling at all. Maybe as you read this you are running from God's love. Maybe He has been drawing you to Him for sometime and you have resisted because you think you can do it on your own or because you don't think you deserve Him. As we end this year, evaluate what you've been doing and ask yourself if you are better off now than you were a year ago. Are you tired of running yet? Aren't you ready to rest? Stop in your tracks. Turn around. The God who holds the stars where they belong and tells the ocean how far it can come is pursuing you with His love. You can't out run Him, so it's time to stop trying.