I hate running. Turn me loose on a basketball court, baseball field or any other venue where there’s a ball and competition, and I’ll stay in perpetual motion for hours. Ask me to lace up my running shoes and take a jog, and I’m sucking wind by the time I pass my own mailbox. I hate running.

I may hate it so much because there’s nothing to distract me from the intense burning in my lungs and the pointlessness I feel when I’m running just to run. Or I may hate it so much because I’ve been doing it for so long. For 25 years, that was pretty much my thing. Run. Run. Run. Like Forest Gump, I just couldn’t stop. Running from mistakes I’ve made, bad things that have happened to me, wounds that I’ve endured. I’ve tried to outrun sin. Sprinting, trying to make stuff happen. I’ve just been running. Exerting effort. Trying to distance myself from the past. Trying to race toward some future I’ve created in my mind.

God asks us ALL THE TIME throughout the Bible to stop running. To “be still.”

Why does He repeat this so often? Because He knows we need the practice. If you have kids, ponder the following. Have you ever asked your child to be quiet and still when you’re…

  • In church
  • At karate class
  • In a library
  • Talking on the phone
  • Sitting with a friend
  • Driving in a car
  • Stressed out

How many times have they listened the first time you asked? Or the second? Never? That’s what I thought. If you don’t have kids, just look around the next time you’re in a restaurant or another public place and laugh as parents try in vain to silence and contain their little bundles of joy. The harder they try, the more chaos ensues.

But running is pointless. Says so right in the Bible.

Isaiah 30:15-17 (with commentary and translation sprinkled in)

In returning and rest, you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength….

God has it covered. There’s no need to run. I just need to be still. 

But you would not, and you said, “No we will flee on horses.”

Sorry, gotta run! It’s kinda my thing.

…those who pursue you shall be swift!

I can’t outrun my enemies, my wounds, my temptations. They are always just a step behind, pushing me. I will never get relief.

…you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill.

I won’t know when to stop. After a while, they’ll just stop chasing me because they don’t have to any longer. My head will down, my iPod cranked up and I won’t even be looking over my shoulder. Just running as far and as fast as I can. Until I finally stop, and look around. Lost and alone in the middle of nowhere.

But then in verse 18, it provides a picture of how God will respond. Even after I say no, no, no, no and kick and scream and run around all hopped up like a crazed toddler who has had too much ice cream. It says: The Lord will wait that He may be gracious to you.

He’s right there waiting. When I finally stop running, and I realize I’m a banner on a lonely hill, so far away from where I was headed. He’s right there. Probably smirking. Hoping that I notice and fully appreciate the irony of how quiet and still it is.

I hate running.