Born to Run
Censorship doesn’t just distort history — it silences God’s redemptive presence in our lives.
The Text and some thoughts: Genesis 28:10–17
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
You can listen to a conversation about today’s post by clicking here.
Deep Breath. Relax.
I am NOT going to ask you your deepest, darkest secrets. I am NOT going to ask you to tell me about something you are terribly embarrassed about. I am NOT going to cajole you into sharing stories about your life that might make us think less of you.
Deep breath. Relax.
And imagine that I did ask those things of you. YIKES! I’ll go first. I’m not proud of this, but sometimes, in traffic, I swear at people who cut me off. I have even gestured at them. I sometimes yelled at my kids when I felt frustrated. I abandoned my family for a while when I overworked and mistook the church I was serving as my paramour.
I am not proud of any of those things. They bring me great pain to remember them. And yet, if they were put down in a book for people to read, over and over again, I might have a sense of Jacob.
Jacob’s Messy Past
Jacob was a very flawed person. Before we catch up with him in today’s story, he has:
exploited his brother’s hunger in exchange for an inheritance,
pretended to be his older brother so that he could deceive his father,
become a fugitive from his brother and gone on the run, never acknowledging his wrongdoing…to anyone, including God!
All this is recorded in Genesis. All of this is repeated time after time by storytellers throughout history, including us today!
Jacob’s dirty laundry is put on display, including his lack of remorse for said socks and underwear. He’s on the run when we meet him. He’s exhausted, without a decent place to sleep. He’s in the wilderness — a code word for “a terrible and dangerous place.” His only pillow is a stone. Despite having dibs on the family fortune by trickery, he has nothing…except weariness.
Running from Our Past
It’s hard work running from one’s past. It takes a lot of twisting and turning to deny our wrongdoings, to keep our shameful bits under wraps.
Look at what is happening now in our country. Efforts are underway to rewrite history so that it looks like everything is hunky-dory in the United States.
Signage in national parks that mentions slavery, Japanese internment, Native American conflicts, or climate change has been taken down or reviewed.
Executive orders have been issued requiring federal sites, museums, and exhibits to avoid what the administration considers “divisive” content about race and gender.
The Defense Department removed or hid thousands of pages/images honoring underrepresented groups (like Navajo code talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, etc.).
Patriotic education commissions and reports present a more positive / less critical version of U.S. history.
Scientific language has been expunged from government websites.
Comedians are being threatened for doing what court jesters have always done: speak truth through humor.
There is a censoring of our messy stuff that is just not faithful. That’s right. Not Faithful. It is spiritually unhealthy.
God’s Scandalous Grace
Jacob’s story isn’t pretty. That a whole nation is named after him is embarrassing. The guy is a cheat and a liar, a deceiver who theologians lovingly brand a “trickster.” He doesn’t acknowledge his wrongdoings, and yet, God comes to him in a dream.
And we know that God follows through, that this isn’t just a delusion, because God hangs on to Jacob. God wrestles with him. God renames him Israel.
Gerhard von Rad: “This story shows us God’s way of dealing with men: He chooses, calls, and commits himself before man is either ready or worthy.”
Claus Westermann: “The narratives about Jacob are not edifying tales of moral virtue but confessions of God’s faithfulness in the midst of human failure.”
Walter Brueggemann: “This fugitive, who is a cheat and has no prospects, is the one to whom the promise is given. The scandal of this story is that God’s future is entrusted to such a person.”
If we were to erase Jacob’s faults, we would erase God’s triumphs!
Why We Remember the Mess
Each of us has some faults. Each of us is Jacob in our own way. Censoring or denying those pieces of our character denies what God is doing in us.
If I presented myself as perfect, I couldn’t tell you about how prayer changed me, how God put people around me who taught me new ways of living, how peace found me.
Likewise, if I hadn’t learned about slavery and internment, I wouldn’t feel both the wince of the past and the hope of the future. If I hadn’t learned from scientists, I wouldn’t know how to protect others during COVID. If we didn’t know about climate change or diverse experiences, how would we partner with God for a healthier world? If we didn’t have comedians, how could we bear to face the scandal of our stories?
That’s why censorship is spiritually unhealthy. It censors God’s participation in our lives.
The Good News for Runners
We aren’t God. We are runners — from our past, our mistakes, our responsibilities, one another, ourselves, even from God.
But here’s the good news:
God knows about all of it.
God finds runners.
God is not afraid of our past but waves the starting flag for a new future.
God calls us to sprint toward kinder, brighter, more grace-filled days.
Breathe.
It’s okay to acknowledge where we’ve been. It’s spiritually mature to go where God is guiding.
Breathe.
Let’s go!