Run Towards Intimacy with Him

                It has been 3 months and a couple of days now since I was declared a college graduate. It also has been more than 3 months now that I’m the official non-working, non-studying individual in our home. It only means that I have a lot of free time nowadays, even more abundant than the busy times that I had when I was a student (sounds like it has been a long time huh? XD). So in these ocean of free times, I made up my daily routine. Of course, first in my morning schedule is my devotion.

               

My mornings with the Lord are spent not inside a room but with nature. We have an unfinished roof top in the house wherein you could seemingly touch the floppy clouds, gaze at the blue or dark sky, and listen to the birds sing. There’s one covered hall we have there with a long, old, brown table inside it. I sit on top of it and there is where I sing out, cry out and write out my heart to God. That is my secret place where I could think of Him so deeply, stay so still and hear His voice so loudly and gaze at His beauty as reflected by His creation.

                Lately, there was something that was stopping me from going there--- a crow. The moment that I went up, a crow screeched so loud and attempted to dive down towards me. In my fear of being bitten by it, I hurriedly run downstairs and never went up again. I thought that it was God telling me to retreat and simply have my devotion on my bed.

                But the next day, the same crow was screeching and scaring me. The same scenario happened and there I was downstairs, near our front door, panting and thinking. God suddenly impressed on me that not even this should stop me from having my quality time with Him. So I made up my mind to run, run as fast as I could to get to my secret place and meet Him. So that was the very thing that I did. I ran through our roof top so fast to reach the spot for my devotion. I heard the crow screeching again but it didn’t get the chance to reach me.

               

When I reached my spot, I sat comfortably at the table and sighed. “How similar this is to our journey of pursuing intimacy with our God,” I thought. Many things (a zillion to number them in this generation) will hinder us from spending time with God. It could be the undefeated, most influential distractor such as the social media or it could be work, school or any particular sin or struggle. And whatever they are, in whatever form they may be, they have this one aim- to keep you away from spending time with God. And truth is, they more often succeed than not.

                The Lord showed me a simple principle from what I experienced this morning:

                Run… FROM the things that keep you away from God and run... TO Him to keep you away from these things.

                Remember: Running takes an extra effort. It’s having to sacrifice your usual comfortable walking for one that is more tiring and active. Running from these things that keep us away from God would mean a decision to change our actions and to sacrifice some things. Maybe it could mean having a social media fast, keeping your phone away from you, turning the tv off, waking up earlier or sleeping later than usual. The thing is, as John and Stasi Eldredge wrote in their book Captivating, “To pursue intimacy with Christ, you will have to fight for it.” As you run from these distractors, and run to Him daily to keep you away from these things, God’s grace and power will make it easier for you to abandon them.

                    What are the crows in your life stopping you from reaching your secret place?

                Whatever they are, remember to run FROM them, and run to God, towards intimacy with Him.