RUNNING. by Andy Carruthers

Ever found yourself in uncharted waters surrounded by unfamiliar people and rules. The goal posts suddenly shift. in surfing terms the line up was displaced and the waves break differently or not at all. In the Mentawai Islands after the Arche earthquake some of the reefs rose 4ft out of the water what was once surfed over was now walked over and sun bleached. A dramatic shift in the lineup and landscape. Well who am I kidding we all kind of know this experience coronavirus has shifted the landscape but has it shifted our faith and should it? I believe there are lessons in Jonah for us all.

It’s easier to run… Replacing this pain with something numbIt’s so much easier to go… Than face all this pain here all alone 

Linkin Park sing these lyrics. Contained within them is a great truth of human nature. Often we feel like running. Running away from circumstances and situations that feel way beyond us. Believing we are powerless to change these things it seems easier and reasonable to run. To run and hide or to run to extremes and conspiracy or to run and stick our head in the sand hoping it will all just go away.

I have been reading the story of Jonah; he found running as his response to God.

Jonah 1:3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

You see, Jonah was being asked to embrace change. Change in his ideas of how Gods love and mercy was played out on the world stage. Jonah understood this change and he even asserted head knowledge of it; however unfortunately for Jonah he was unwilling to embrace this change and be moved by it. He believed it was easier to run.

Change always comes at a cost.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. Anatole France

To embrace new ideas and ideologies we must die to our old ones. To embrace something new you must let go of the old. This is what Jonah was completely unwilling to do. Fearing the cost of change he fled from the vehicle of change, God.

However it is very hard to escape. not only from God but from change itself. The obstacle to change lay inside Jonah; it was his stubborn, hard heart and wherever he went he ran headlong into himself.

It is easier to run, but we may end up running all of the time when what needs changing lies within us.

When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves. - Viktor E. Frankl

If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living. - Gail Sheehy

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Andy planted the  SALT Life Community church, is the Chaplain to the World Longboard Tour and is a well-published Surf Photographer and Writer with articles across multiple magazines and newspapers.