Where can I flee from your presence?
—Psalm 139:7
Thirty-three-year-old Captain William Howard Hughes, Jr. disappeared from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M. on July 18, 1983.
Thirty-five years later, on June 6, 2018, he was found and arrested. Hughes had forged a fake identity and lived in California since his desertion. He spent more than half his life looking over his shoulder.
Most of us know the feeling of being on the run from a past indiscretion or misstep. We know what it’s like to run away from what God wants us to do and be. But, like Jonah, we’ve found that you can’t outrun God.
And, hopefully, we, like Jonah, have also discovered that God hasn’t given up on us and that he always stands ready to restore a repentant deserter (Jon 2:2).
Don’t go AWOL from God.