As I was settling in tonight to sink my teeth into a work project that I should have finished during business hours, I felt the need to pause for a moment and read some scripture. Reset if you will. Take a moment to breathe in God and breathe out the toxic attitude I was carrying from a stressful, long, painful day. 

Nowadays, when I read my Bible, I consistently take one of two approaches. 1. I thumb through the appendix looking for a specific topic that I think will speak to me. i.e. fear, sin, purpose, etc. 2. I randomly open the book and let my eyes turn where they may. I’ve had success with both approaches. Tonight, I rolled the dice and landed in Amos. I must say that I have no idea who Amos is, other than he is evidently famous and makes some really good chocolate chip cookies. I have no context for what the book of Amos is about. I do plan to research it after the fact, or after this post as it were.

In Amos, I landed on chapter 9, which according to its title speaks of “the destruction of Israel.” In other words, an upbeat, joyful read. Verses 1-5 basically can be summed up as saying, no matter where you try to hide, I (God) will find you. Whether you “dig into hell” or “climb into heaven” or “hide at the bottom of the sea” or “on the top of Carmel” it says, “I (God) will set My eyes on them, for harm and not good.”

I closed my Bible, feeling good about providing space for the Lord to speak. I briefly pondered the passage, noting that you can’t really hide from God. And then I turned back to my work project. As it turns out, God had more to say. I had grabbed a stray notebook to write in, something my wife had sitting around. After filling up one page with scrawl and scribbles, I turned to the next page and noticed a footer at the bottom, centered with quotations. It said, “How will I be different because of what I have just read?” Hmmm. Odd. I flipped to the next page, and there was the same quotation. It was the footer for every page in the notebook.

So, I stopped. And I asked myself the question. How will I be different because of what I just read? Obviously, I had not fully extracted the message God had for me. So, I meditated a bit longer on the verses and deeply considered how they applied to my life. After several minutes of silence, I broke through to the next level.

I can’t hide from God. That was my initial take. Upon further probing, I found myself contemplating when and how I usually try to hide from God. I do it often. I run from things that are hard. I duck behind my insecurities and fail to act even when it is the right thing to do. I dig a hole with sin, giving into temptation as a way to cope and a way to resist facing reality. Much like an ostrich with its head in the sand. Basically, I make excuses. I have a rationale or a reason for my inability to obey His call, to follow His will, to live by His word. I cast blame on my “human nature” or my “situation” or just life in general.

Some of my most common excuses include, but are not limited to: 

I’m under a lot of stress right now. I just feel uncomfortable doing that. There’s too much going on. I can’t help myself. It’s not the right time. It’s too risky. No one would listen to me. I couldn’t pull it off. I’m not ready. I don’t think that’s really what God has for me. No one is perfect. I’ll do better next time. Today was just a tough day. She/He/They are really to blame. I’m the victim here. I’m not cut out for this. I just need a break. It’s not my place to get involved. She/He/They don’t care what I have to say. I don’t know where to start. It’s just too hard. Tomorrow is another day…

I could SO go on and on and on.

Bottom line is you can’t hide from God. If you want to know Him, to walk with Him, you have to step out from behind the excuses and take ownership of your situation. With two small children, I watch a lot of animated movies. There’s a scene in Madagascar which I love dearly. The penguin mafia has hijacked the ship, but they are having trouble operating it. The lead penguin responds to a sequence of explanations from his comrades by saying, “I don’t want excuses, I want results!” And then he slaps the offending bird across the face. Now, that is the way to approach our walk. No excuses. Just results.

I’m setting a goal for myself to be on the lookout for excuses. To not let myself off the hook so easily and to demand results. To at least understand the drivers behind my excuses so that I understand what it is I’m hiding behind. That will make it easier to step out from behind it. And to stop hiding from what God has for me, whether it is out of fear, lack of faith, sin or another culprit.

After all, I can’t truly hide from Him anyway, so it’s rather silly when you think about it. Kind of like when my kids play hide and seek with me, and insist on going to the same place (underneath the dining room table) where I can clearly still see them even though their hands are over their eyes. That must be what we look like to God when we throw up an excuse as a smoke screen. When we offer up a reason why we can’t obey. Or we try to rationalize our sin. Or cast blame and point fingers. How refreshing would it be if we stood before God and said, “You know, here’s the real reason I have fallen short, or why I’ve been unable to do what you’ve asked of me. So, I’m asking for your forgiveness, but I’m not making excuses.” Ownership is the first step toward true growth.

I’ll close by asking you a question. The same one God asked of me tonight. “How will you be different today because of what you just read?”