Fleeing

I'm realizing something about myself: I have a tendency to flee when things get hard.

It was true when I was a kid. Gym class was embarrassing, so I "got sick" a lot during that time each week. I tried my hand at the piano and the clarinet, and quit each not too long after mastering "Mary Had a Little Lamb." I enjoyed playing, but the daily practice was too hard.

In college when I got frustrated, I didn't drop out - but I did figure out a way to graduate a year early and get on out of there. When things got tough at my old job, I was ready to go. (Though on some of those decisions I think God was genuinely leading me, maybe even using my bad habit of fleeing.)

Even when I can't leave a situation permanently, I like to go for drives just to get away for a bit.

I think there are times when you have to leave a bad situation for your own health. But sometimes we have to go through the tough times and figure out how to wring out whatever positive we can find so we can deal with it. And that's the part I have to learn.