Running

What are our symptoms of running from life? For me a sure sign of running from my life is an interior restlessness. I know that something within me is amiss, but tending to it with any intention to listen only causes me to fear the answer to the question, “What will I find?” Consequently, I always choose the easier road; business.

Making a list of “action items” and then checking them off when I completed them was so much more productive than considering what might be taking place in the interior of my life. Besides, taking time away from doing to taking the time to listen is just too hard to explain to my peers. Rattling off my list of accomplishments is not. 

 Socrates is credited as saying that an unexamined life is not worth living. But, why should we? What is so important to examine, ponder, ruminate, mull over, reflect, speculate, muse, wonder or meditate about? Why not keep just running? 

Living

I like what Gordon MacDonald says in his book, Ordering Your Private World, “Ponder the pattern your life is weaving.” When we consider what we are running from and why we are running from it, then we might notice a particular pattern or habit that we formed long ago that needs altering. 

Not all the patterns we’ve woven for our life are bad, but neither are all our patterns good either. When something is amiss, when our guts are uncomfortable, it may be a sure sign that an adopted pattern has run its course and has us running instead of living.  

For example, I was brought up with the saying, “Don’t cry over spilled milk.” Too bad that I adopted that saying and made it a pattern for myself. 

This childhood saying wreaked a good share of havoc in my adulthood aiding me in creating a particular thought pattern about crying; it was illegitimate and uncalled for.   

Therefore, when I felt sad and wanted to cry, I ran to what felt safer; busyness. 

When did it finally dawn on me that I could not outrun sadness? When did I finally become aware of the pattern I was weaving? It wasn’t all at once, but only as I was encouraged by others, who like me, had been running from their lives and wanted to live instead. 

Why Bother?

Why bother to stop running? When we stop running then we may discover the pattern we are weaving with our lives and choose to make any necessary alterations so that we can begin to live.

P.S.  I wrote the story of my journey to forgiveness for those who, like me, want to put order to the scattered pieces of our lives. You can find A Heart’s Journey To Forgiveness at Redemption Press and Amazon.