In the latest Jurassic Park movie, Jurassic World, one thing the characters are told to do in case of eminent dinosaur attack is run. Yes, run, as fast and as hard as possible.
It’s a carryover from the original movie in 1993, when Laura Dern’s character was injured, and she cried, “Run!”
Sometimes to get away from our problems is the only way to survive. It gives us space to reconsider what’s happening, to reassess our options, and reengage with whatever method we hope to use to overcome what’s in our way.
Sometimes to run is not cowardice at all. Rather, it’s the brilliance that allows us to survive.
Take the story of Hagar. She was Sarah’s handmaid, and due to Abraham’s lack of faith in God, she bore a child that Abraham hoped would become his legacy.
Abraham sidestepped God’s plan, and he stirred up a world-wide controversy that still cripples our world today. Hagar was caught up in it when she and her son were cast from Abraham’s household with little more than some bread and a bottle of water.
She went into the desert. It wasn’t Palm Springs, either. She had no means of procuring food or water, and soon, what she had was gone.
Hagar was out of options.
Genesis 21:16 says:
“And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.”
A bow shot away. That was the distance that got God’s attention. In the very next verse we read:
“Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad.”
Laura Dern’s dinosaurs were unmistakably huge. Who wouldn’t want to run? Yet, our daily problems seem just as overwhelming when they press us down day after day. Our only solution is to get away, to run, to find a place where our problems are at least a bow shot away, so that we can hear the voice of the Lord as he reassures us that he is at our side, and our problems are small in his hand.
How far is a bowshot? Farther than we can reach with our arms; far enough away that we can’t pull our problems back to us once again. We will find that God can only show us the solution to our problems when we take the opportunity to back away from them. Otherwise, we’re blinded to the truth by the pain in our eyes.
Hagar could only find God’s solution when she set her problem aside and gave God room to talk to her.
God can only speak to us when our problems no longer consume every moment of every day.
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Code: FGO.F.19.15.vp.kjv