One of the most obvious indications that someone is a runner is the shoes.  You can tell a runner, often times, by the shoes they wear.  I used to do a lot of running, not as much any more, but I was really into running shoes.  I can tell the difference between brooks, saucony, hoka, and altra without too much difficulty.  Running shoes are designed for running.  But often times you can really tell a runner by the kind of shape their running shoes are in.  Some runner’s shoes look almost brand new.  Now this could be an indication that they just got them, but sometimes it indicates that they’re not really that much of a runner at all. 

I brought with me some running shoes.  This is my oldest pair right now, and they’ve been around.  I can’t remember how long I’ve had these, but it’s been a while.  And you can tell if you look closely.  The decals on the side are peeling off.  The tread on the bottom is thin and worn.  And they have holes all over—they don’t work too well in the rain.  But you can look at these shoes and tell that I’ve put in the miles and time on the trail. 

Some of us, most of us, in fact, probably all of us have a pair of shoes like this.  A pair of worn, old, past their life time shoes.  I’m not talking about physical running shoes, I’m talking about spiritual running shoes.  In our hearts we have an imaginary closet, and in this closet, at least if you’re anything like me, is a pair of running shoes.  They’re worn, which indicates we’ve used them a lot.  They’re old, which means we’ve been using them for a while.  But they are the shoes that we use when we run from God.  And just like my running shoes are full of holes and old and worn out from use, so are the shoes we use to run from God, because we do it regularly and easily.  We are all, at times, experienced runners from God.  We have all tried to run from God in various ways. 

What does it look like to run from God?  Well, we run from God every time we do something God doesn’t want us to do.  When we respond incorrectly in life, we run from God.  When we give into sin—whether it pride or gossip or lust or anger or anxiety—whenever we sin we are running from God, because we know this is not what God wants us to do.  In this sense, we are all runners; we are all experienced runners from God.  As we come to the book of Jonah this morning, we learn that Jonah was also a runner from God.  Jonah continued the oldest spiritual endurance event known to man—running from God.  Ever since Adam and Eve mankind has been running from God.  And Jonah demonstrates that for us in his life story.  From the story of Jonah in our text today, we learn a very important truth for our spiritual lives:

Big idea: You cannot run from God; so stop trying!