Runners.

With summer here it seems that my evenings are no longer my own, i.e. my usual blogging time is now taken with other things. Good things (for what sweetness of summer isn't just that--a sweetness?), but other things, nonetheless.
One of those things is biking. And every night, for a couple hours, there the roads and trails and pavements find me, looking at the natural world and chasing sunsets.

I apologize now if I post too many sunset pictures.
The other night I was just toodling along when I saw this guy:

And then across the road:

(Deer always come in pairs, btw. Whenever I am driving and one goes in front of me on the road I always say, "Where's your little friend?")

But with deer, after you have seen the above, then you no doubt will see this:

And this:

Why? Because deer are runners.
Deer run when they are afraid.
Was it hunting season? Did I have a gun? Were they in any kind of danger?
Negative.
But they figured, because others before me had been, that I was out to get them.

As I was biking away I was sombered by the thought that I think sometimes I am like a deer.
A runner, one who flees, at the first sign of trouble or issue, I just run. Because I am afraid.
Rather than facing it head on, or dealing with the problem----run. Call it an "escapist" if you want to be fancy, or call it someone with trust issues who closes themself off if you want to speak truth, it's all the same.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think there are definitely times to run. If the situation is unhealthy, if it's an issue of sin or addiction, whatever, you need to get out! My youth pastor in high school would say, "God will always provide a way out of temptation, and usually that way out is your own two legs."
Simple, but boy is it true. There is no room for excuses there, just walk away.

But about those of us who are runners. What if it isn't an abusive or unhealthy situation, or it's not an area of sin or temptation, and the only reason we are running away from whatever is fear? Unfounded fear.
Shouldn't we maybe stop running? Shouldn't we maybe know the truth more than that deer does, like the truth that God is our Shield. Protector. Provider. The One who Saves. The One who holds the world and our hearts and our lives. Shouldn't we maybe rest in his perfect love, the love that casts out fear (of man, situations, obstacles, death), and say, "This time I will trust that he is bigger than whatever I am afraid of"?
I don't want us to be "fearless", Wolfies, because I think there are a lot of things to heed with caution, but I want us to be brave, facing the unfounded fears for what they are: a girl on a bike ride rather than a hunter with a gun.