Stop Running. Start Listening. (How Did I Get here?)

      I graduated last month from Alliance Theological Seminary with my Masters of Divinity. My 28th birthday is tomorrow, and on Sunday I will be installed as an Associate Pastor at Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. Thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement as I’ve been on this journey. It has not been easy and I could not have gotten where I am today without the help of others. A lot has happened but I am grateful that God has been faithful in this time.

      So I was talking with a friend last week and she asked the question “How did I get here?” She meant it not in a “my life is unraveling and I'm at the end of my rope, how did I get here” kind of way. But the exact opposite. For the most part things are going well. Im crushing my goals, loving life, sure I've had some setbacks and disappointments but overall I'm doing what I've got to do and couldn't be happier, How did I get here? Very important question and I think the answer lies in reflection. 

    Its crazy how time flies. I remember about ten years ago three different people in the same church service said the same thing to me. They told me to stop running. Running from my calling. Running from my purpose. Running from Responsibility. Running from God. Wanting God to chose someone else, to pastor Bethel. Anyone else. Now I know I would have been heartbroken watching someone walk into this season, knowing that it's where I should have been. So thankful that I stopped running and started listening.

    The thing about listening that we have trouble with is it often requires sacrifice. It often requires following plans that are not our own, going places we wouldn't necessarily choose to go and losing relationships we thought we’d have forever. Listening can be painful. The thing about running that attracts us is we get to hold on to what we think its best for us. We get to follow our plans, go where we want, and keep that relationship, but at what cost? We run away from God's voice clutching our plans close. Thinking that we escaped from his vision with our prized possession still in tact not realizing thatwe are on our way to shattered dreams and wasted years and pain that could have been avoided if we had only listened.

    Jonah knows a little something about running. God told him to go to Nineveh and call the people there to repent (Jonah 1:2). Only one problem. These people weren't really what we would call friendly. They were cruel and brutal to Jonah's people and here God is telling Jonah to offer them the opportunity to repent. Jonah, instead of doing Gods will, decides to act on his own desires and run. He ends up not only in a storm, but has to be thrown overboard because its revealed that his disobedience is the cause of the storm (Jonah 1:4). Not only is he thrown overboard but he eventually finds himself in the belly of a whale. No doubt he too asked, How did I get here. Those moments aren't ideal but they're necessary. The moments that cause us to reflect back and retrace our steps. Jonah's story doesn't end there but thats where we'll end for now, at the consequence of his disobedience. 

   So ask yourself. "How did I get here?" Is your "here" negative or positive. Wherever you're at reflect on the moments where you ran and the moments where you listened. Guarantee those will help you see the answer to your question.  Everyones situation is different, and at various points in our lives we all run for different reasons. I'm just glad God doesn't stop speaking. He doesn't stop giving us the opportunity to stop running, and start listening.