Ed, my neighbour next door, has been missing the last week or so. Ruby, his wife, claims he has run away to hunt moose as he always does each November. Ed's fall hunting can be a week, two weeks or more, depending on how many moose he and his fellow hunters shoot.
Ruby claims Ed is a runner and always has been. Ed runs away regularly to fish, to curl, to golf, to bowl, to watch hockey games, to get machinery parts and to buy another great bargain at a farm auction, as well as to hunt. Ruby says it doesn't make any difference how long he is gone - Ed always comes back home. He is like a cat that you hope is a goner but always comes back because he can't stay away.
"I guess it is kind of lonely for you when Ed is away hunting," I said to Ruby.
"Yes, it is a heavenly loneliness," Ruby answered with a grin.
It seems to me, we are all pretty good at running off to what we like to do, but not to what we have to do or need to do. It is easy to get motivated about what we enjoy doing. It is much harder to keep coming back to what we dislike, don't enjoy and think we never will enjoy. Life seems to keep us running in a wasteland of extremes, between being a fool for fun or a glutton for misery. Many describe their work as misery and their time off or the weekend as fun.
Perhaps, to a certain degree, everyone runs from their stress to their pleasure. Children very quickly sum up life as: I want to. I don't want to. Do I have to? Make me! If you make me I'll run away!
Every winter comes with cold, snow and storms that will assault us, so some run away to the south to escape it. How many students faced with a tough teacher and a horrible subject consider dropping the course or quitting school? Resignations at work may come when workers feel that running away is their best hope. When things are tough, people feel stuck in what they need to do or what lies before them. Is it discouragement, weariness and/or weakness that make some run?
The difference between staying and running off in tough situations seems to come down to a power beyond ourselves. The Bible says it this way: "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble, and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
Just before his arrest, Jesus took his disciples to the Mount of Olives and knelt down and prayed beyond them. "'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.' And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." When he arose from prayer, his disciples were sleeping and Judas and the soldiers were at hand to arrest him.
Jesus understood that when we want to run away from what is before us, our decision must be based on that which will accomplish God's will for us. Does God want us to stay or run away in tough situations?
