Born to Run

If I were to stage a race between all the species of animals, who do you think would win?

The cheetah?

She would certainly be the first out of the gate to a huge lead, but she would tire quickly, unable to sustain those speeds.

Maybe the rabbit?

He would have impressive speeds up to 45mph, but can only do that for 800meters.

Extend that race to an hour long, and there would be only one species left running…

Humans.

Biologists and anthropologists have questioned and studied the curious case of human running for centuries. However unlikely it might seem, we are uniquely suited among animals for running. As The Boss would say, we are “born to run.”

Running is a thing we do.

It doesn’t take long inside this skin to realize running is a thing we do. The phrase “learn to walk before you learn to run” wouldn’t exist if we didn’t all try to skip walking all together. I’ll never forget the day visiting in-laws when our little boy, who had barely ever tried walking, came running past us with the biggest smile on his face as he chased my mother-in-law’s little yorkie. 

It’s not just physical running that we all take part in. We ‘run’ after the job, the girl, the house, the promotion, the American dream. That voice in our head tells us just a little faster, just a little further. We ‘run’ to the store, to the office, to soccer practice, to the bank. Like Forrest Gump, we just keep running.

Jonah the prophet in Jonah chapter 1 takes up a whole new level of running, running from God:

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord… (Jonah 1:1-3a)

Don’t you just think: “Really Jonah? You know better than that. Where exactly are you going to go?” It’s obvious if you read the text: Jonah was a fool. You can’t outrun God. I want to shake my head at Jonah. How can you be so foolish Jonah? But the thing is I’m just as foolish as he is. So many times I take matters into my own hands, ignoring God’s instruction. I run after this or that opportunity. I run after my own solution to my problems. I run after that car I really want, or that house I really ‘need’. I run in busyness rather than resting in Jesus. 

I think there’s a reason God made us with this desire to run.

We are created to run after the things of God.

But we misplace that desire and run after other things, sometimes good things, in place of Him. Just like Jonah, we think we know better. We want something other than what God wants for us. We run after gods of control, success, money, prestige, and power . As Springsteen sang “In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream”.  So we keep running, but like Jonah, we’ll find “Troubles multiply for those who chase after other gods.” (Psalm 16:4). 

Yet, in the middle of our rebellion, God is calling to us with a promise:

“The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.” —Proverbs 18:10

The question isn’t: are we going to run? It is: where are we going to run?

Either way, we’re running.

We can’t help it, it’s in our nature. Are we going to run after something or someone other than God? Where are we going to go? There’s nowhere we can escape God’s presence. Or, are we going to run hard after God? He’s promised to be our refuge if we run to Him.

My prayer for you and me is that we will run towards Jesus. That we will be so in love with Him that there will be nothing else worth the energy to run after. That our desire will be so strong for the Lord that all of the distractions will fade away into the distance as we run to Jesus. That as the apostle Paul wrote to the Phillipians: “...I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Back to The Boss:

We're gonna get to that place

Where we really wanna go

And we'll walk in the sun

But 'til then tramps like us

Baby, we were born to run

Folks, let’s put on our running shoes…