Run

Olly Olly Oxen Free: A catchphrase used in the children's game of Hide-and-Go-Seek to indicate that players who are hiding can come out into the open without losing the game.

Moving from Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley to Simi in the summer of 1965 was pretty exciting. Simi was a boom town for developers building new tract homes and many young families with children were migrating west to buy their first homes. You can imagine how thrilled I was to be around the older kids on El Monte Drive. Being the oldest child of a Mother that was herself the oldest, meant all my siblings and cousins were younger than me.

Games and sayings on the street were accepted at face value if you wanted to hang with the elder kids on the block. There was no silly questions from the peanut gallery like, "Who thought of that game?" or "Where did that expression come from?" You just shut up and did what they said, or else. Don't ask me what "or else" was. It was just implied and I was too afraid to go there.

A game I enjoyed and was good at, was Hide-and-Go-Seek. Summer nights seemed to be the best time to play with more dark areas and shadows to hide in. The leaders would set the boundaries and off we'd run to our hiding places. I was always good at hiding because I tried to be creative and think out of the box for locations. Knowing your neighbors helped too, because if you picked the house with the barking German Shepard, that was a dead give away.

Before now, I never understood the saying about how your strengths can be your weaknesses at the same time. The creativity that has enabled me to excel at some things has also helped me avoid the truth about myself and my relationship with God. It's almost as if I don't think about him then I'm not accountable for my selfish motives. In a game of spiritual Hide-and-Go-Seek, I get creative about the places I can run to and think he can't see me.

If you're a fellow believer, you'll know what I'm talking about. Sometimes I lose sight of the relationship with the Lord that I have. I forget about the initial joy and excitement that I experienced in becoming a Born Again Believer. Jesus is always there for me, even though I'm not always there for Him. There are times, I'm either spiritually lazy or I care more about what the world thinks is more important. I run away and hide when I don't want to be accountable for my thoughts or actions.

Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" Isaiah 29:15

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Father, may I always remember you're always a prayer away and that you love me and gave your Son to die on a cross for me, so that we could have a relationship.

I'm already forgiven, there's no reason to Run.