There are many situations in your life that you can get yourself out of. You even tell yourself that life would be 100% easier if you could just run away from whatever situation you are in.
I am the definition of a runner… and its crap.
I run when things get hard. I run when there are problems with my family, and I run when I am scared of falling in love or getting hurt.
I am a runner.
I have found that there is really no positive outcome when it comes to running. For example, the problem with my bad knees is the result of running. Running kind of sucks.
I’m a runner and it just so happens that I always run into crap.
This past weekend my team and I went to an Elephant Sanctuary and it was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. We were able to play with the elephants, feed them and bathe them.
When it’s time for the elephants to take a bath, you guide them down to the river and start throwing buckets full of water on their back. It is incredibly exciting and funny, but at the same time a little scary. You see, the mud is really slippery and over and over again we watched as elephants fell on their sides and hit the water with a loud splash.
This terrified me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but while everyone else was filled with laughter… I was scared. The more I thought about it the only thing I was scared of was the unknown. The what-ifs.
What if the elephant falls on me and squishes me dead?
What if the elephant gets scared and stomps me deep under the water and I drown?
I could see it…“Missionary girl dies by being stomped on the head by Dumbo’s mom.” I know… I’m dramatic! But as I watched these things play in my head I was freaking out! I’m a runner… and I needed to prepare myself to run if that was what I needed to do to survive.
THAT is where it hit me. I prepare myself for the worst and I make up in my mind before hand that I am going to run. I only think about surviving situations instead of thriving in them, pressing into the very difficult thing that can make me into all God has for me to be.
One of the elephants began to get scared and it appeared to me as if he was going to fall. Immediately I did what I do best… I ran away.
Not giving it a second thought and acting only on fear I ran for the hills. Not even looking where I was going I found myself in a huge pile of crap. Yes, real crap. Elephant sized crap all the way up to my ankles. As I turned back and looked at my friends who were still in the water I noticed that they were all still laughing as if nothing had happened. Nothing had happened. The elephant didn’t fall and I found myself in a pretty crappy situation.
We all know how I enjoy turning real goofy situations into life lessons… so without further ado… here it is.
I realized that when I run away from things that appear scary all I am doing is running into another crappy situation. Here is the deal; the Lord is trying to teach me something in the situation that may not be ideal. He is trying to grow me and teach me how to trust Him and love Him more, but when I chose to run away from that I get myself into crap. Smelly…stinky…sticky crap.
This morning, I almost went home from the World Race. I decided it was time to run away. I feel like I am not growing, I am not connecting with my teammates the way I want to, I am tired of seeing injustice and not being able to do much about it, and I am burnt out in trying in general.
Then the Lord reminded me of the crappy Elephant story.
Right now I am in a really hard season. It’s like the plateau in weight loss. When you stop losing weight you can either switch up your workout and diets in a healthy way to make it more effective, OR you can do what is easiest… shove brownies in your mouth and give up.
One is harder but is more effective, and the other just ends up making you feel worse and sliding you backwards in all of your progress.
Is there a situation right now in your life that you are struggling with? Are you scared? Are you ready to run?
Press in. Press in hard. Press in as hard as I am to stay where God has called me. He is trying to teach you something and if you run away from it you will only find Him trying to teach you the EXACT same thing but with different scenery.
Press in to the bad days. Press in when the big, scary elephant begins to lean your way, and press in when giving up is the only thing that makes sense. Press in to the uncomfortable and press in to the suck as much as you would lean into the good.
Sometimes the Elephant falls and you get hurt… that’s okay. There is beautiful restoration and refining that comes with the struggles in our lives. But sometimes the Elephant leans and you run away from the most exciting part before it has the chance to get fun. When you run… you run into crap. His grace is sufficient and He will always pull you out and clean you off, but there will always be a part of you that will wonder, “What if I would have stayed?”
He sees you.
He knows where you are and it doesn’t surprise Him that you are having a hard time.
He is not afraid of the things you are afraid of, and He is bigger than any elephant that is leaning your way.
Rest in this: His ways for you are good. Though it doesn’t look like it now through the eyes of pain and in the stagnant waters… He is doing something good and He never withholds His best from you.
Before Christmas my mom would work hard on wrapping our presents in secret. She loves to recycle and often times she would use old boxes from previous purchases to wrap our gifts. This is the way I often view the hard and pressing times that are given to us. My ipod might be wrapped in a Hanes Underwear box, and it’s not God’s way of tricking us… it His way of saying, “Things aren’t always pretty on the outside and sometimes you can take it for what you think it is. But the beauty is seeing deeper than what is right before your eyes.”
His motives are good. He is good. His plans for you are good.
He will never give you more than you can bear and I promise you the elephant will never crush you. It may fall, it may hurt, but you are never defeated.
Choose today to live the life of thriving in the midst of uncertainty and fear. Choose today to dig your feet steady into the slippery ground and trust that no matter what happens He is your protector and His ways are good. Choose today a life of staying where He has called you, because His plans are far more beautiful than a pile of crap.
