Running Away from God

Have you ever had to run after an animal? When I was a teenager I had this horse. His name was Starbucks but I called him Buck. (Yes, I am addicted to coffee.) He was a Mustang and had a mind of his own. One day I got him all saddled up and took him out riding on the paved bike trail across from my house. As we were riding along things were going all right until for some reason I dismounted. I can’t remember now exactly why I got down, maybe he was acting funny and I wanted to check his saddle or he picked up a rock in his shoe? Whatever the reason when I went to mount again Buck decided he was done for the day. Before I knew it he had turned around and was running down the trail away from me!

So there I am running down the pavement in cowboy boots (which are not easy to run in by the way) chasing after this huge horse and yelling his name. “Buck! Buck! Stop Buck!” I’m not sure why I expected him to obey but regardless of my, apparently faulty, logic he just kept running.

I’m sure it was quite the picture, my saddled horse running down the trail and me running behind him screaming my head off. The closer I got the faster he ran, the more I called, the more he ignored me and headed for home.

I thought of this story the other day when I read Hosea 11:2 “But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.”

Aren’t we like that with God, constantly running away? The Israelites were. The more God called to them, the more He instructed them to do something the more they ran away from Him. He called them out of Egypt, they complained about the desert and not having water. He provided manna, they wanted meat. He was their ruler, they demanded a king and so on and so forth.

It’s easy to look at the Israelites and see where they went wrong, it’s harder to do that with our own lives. But take a moment to think about it. How often has God told you to do something and you’ve ran away.

Talk to that friend about me.

That friend God, really? Surely you don’t mean that. I must have heard you wrong.

Offer that homeless person that extra food you have in the car.

Oh I can’t do that God, I might get hungry later and I don’t want to stop.

Give up your daily latte one day a week so you can give extra money to your church.

Sorry God, I need the caffeine.

Whatever the situation is we have an amazing skill to run away from God. So next time you hear that still, small, voice try to take a moment and instead of running away like a bratty horse trying to get home, stop and listen and do what He says.

By the way in case you’re curious the horse was fine. A log truck and a couple of cars had to stop in the middle of the road but my mom walked out and the dumb animal ran straight to her, happy to stop and let her lead him safely across the road. Needless to say I wasn’t impressed with his antics and I swear that horse spent the rest of the day laughing at me. However we did make it on our ride. It was just a little delayed and a lot harder than first anticipated.