Runaway

It's a word that we all either chill or thrill at: runaway. Runaway horse, runaway vehicle, runaway emotions, runaway train... All of these things, at one point or another, have caused a terrible scene somewhere in our world. "Runaway" is one of those things that you can't just push to the side as a light word...it's real, it's heavy, and it hurts.

Hurts? "Runaway"? ...mhm. Try this.............................................runaway father? Runaway mother? Runaway child? Runaway friend? Starts to get more of a picture, does it?

Running away often looks appealing. When I was 13 years old, I came close to it. I was ready to run, but afraid of the consequences of throwing myself at the mercy of a cold, unfriendly world. I was ready to go...I was convinced to stay. I was nearly a runaway myself.

And then when I got older, I experienced another type of runaway. A friend, very near and dear to my heart; one I trusted nearly above all the other friends I possessed.... someone I loved..... became a runaway. Not in the traditional sense, but in an emotional sense. When I needed them most...when I was trusting them to be there, they "ran away"; from the problems, from the responsibility, from the commitment such a friendship most assuredly demanded. He ran, and I wished for a place to run myself.... But this time, I couldn't be the runaway. Someone else had taken that place, and I had to stay and face the reality. No running, no escaping.... I could only hide my broken heart in an impenetrable castle and hope that I'd never have another precious friend become a runaway.

Through the time, since then til now, I've had more experiences with runaways. I've watched still more friends run away, as it were; listened to stories from runaways, who were desperately searching for something more and couldn't find it.... Runaways are common. Do you know any?

Fairly recently, I've experienced another type of runaway, one I never had to confront before. In a literal sense, yes.... They're gone for right now, leaving me with little idea, if none, of their actual geographical location. But there's always a reason behind someone running away, whether physically or only emotionally. Often, the only reason is pain--coupled with rejection, the sense of abandonment, the fear that no one cares, and the desperate heart cry for love, this can be a devastating kind of pain. My knowledge of this only leads me to believe that when one literally runs away, they're crying for help...and crying for love.

I'll be very honest: I've been a runaway all my life. It's never been something I would've termed myself as, but as I look at the facade, the false front, I've placed before people for most of my life, I realize that I'm a runaway. I've run from reality, run from God, run from pain, run from rejection... Run like my life depended on it. Which, in a small sense, it did. I've been a refugee as it were, fleeing from everything for most of my life; a runaway.

How about you?

Are you running away from things? Pain? Fear? God? Family? Rejection? Loneliness? the list goes on, but I can only name so many; the ones I've known the best are the easiest to relate to. What are you running from? Who are you running from? And why?

It's not easy to be a runaway, but in the last few months, I've come to commence the learning of very vital lessons. Lessons that are showing me more and more who I really am, what I've really been all my life, and what I'm not. And I've come to learn, very forcibly in this case, this very salient, and life-changing truth.....

You cannot run away from anything. Running away from God is like leaving your shadow behind; running away from your problems doesn't work either, because they're your problems, and you take them with you. You can't run away and have it be a success...it doesn't work.

But there is a solution. A solution to pain, to problems, to a love deficiency. It's not a parent, a sibling, a "significant other", a distraction, a potion, or a magic utterance. It's a Friend--Jesus Christ.... He's been waiting to be the answer for all the runaways in the world... How many of them actually take Him up on His offer, and ultimately, His greatest desire? Very few...... and yet, I want to be one of those very few. And I want you to be one of them too.

Are you a runaway? Where are you headed?

If you like, I can point you in a direction to run..... Right up that hill, to the foot of that cross. There's a Man waiting up there who told me He wanted you to come to Him.... and I guarantee, when you run in that direction, you'll never have any need or desire to run anywhere else..... ever again......