Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. — Jonah 1:2-3

In the mid-90s, there was a movie starring Tom Hanks called Forrest Gump. The movie has been critically acclaimed, criticized, and scrutinized on many different levels. I don’t remember a lot about the movie, but I do remember one specific scene that has stuck with me.

It starts with Hanks, as Forrest, sitting on the porch of a house. He says that for no specific reason on that day, he went out to run. He said he was only going to go so far and stop, but he didn’t. He kept going. First, it was the town, then the county, then the state, then the ocean. Each time he found himself at a place he couldn’t keep running, he would turn in a different direction and run some more.

There are times in our Christian lives when we do the same thing. We know that God has called us for a specific purpose, a specific plan, or to do a specific thing. Instead, we decide we are going to run. We are going to run from God.

Maybe we say we won’t run for long. But it always ends up that we try to run away from God longer than we planned. Maybe God puts something in our way to stop us, but we turn a different way and keep running.

Are you running from what God has asked of you? If so, it is time to stop running from God. You can try all you want, but you cannot outrun Him. In the end, you only lose valuable time and the opportunity God has given. Today is a great day to stop running from God and submit to His will!

Jared Dyson