Running from God

When jurors are seated onto a panel for a trial, they’re expected to assist in the pursuit of justice. But rarely does it result in a literal foot pursuit.

However, the trial of Nicholas Carter was the exception to the rule. The Portland Press Herald reported that 31-year-old Carter had just been convicted of aggravated assault against a 14-month-old when he attempted to escape custody by running out of the courtroom while his hands were cuffed.

Detective Jeremy Leal was present in the second-floor courtroom at the time. After Carter bolted, Leal and several judicial marshals immediately gave chase, following Carter down the stairs and toward the exterior door.

“All of sudden, we hear this huge bang. Crash. Boom,” said attorney Dawn DiBlasi. “And this guy comes running down the stairs. He’s handcuffed or shackled. He’s trying to escape. Literally, he’s got his hands on the railing, coming down, trying to jump three stairs at a time. His feet weren’t shackled.”

Security footage from the incident shows another attorney, who happened to be waiting in the hallway, attempting to thwart Carter’s escape, but he was unsuccessful. Carter eventually made it outside, crossed the street, and then tripped and fell in a yard.

That’s when he was apprehended by two other men, bystanders who just happened be to serving the court as jurors in a different case, according to Sheriff Dale Lancaster. As they held him down, Detective Leal was able to bring Carter back into custody.

Nicholas Carter now faces additional charges for the escape attempt.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just as this guilty man tried to run but was captured, there is no one fast enough or wily enough to escape the Lord’s judgment.

An Italian mafia boss, Gioacchino Gammino, has been on the run for decades. Gammino escaped a Rome prison in 2002 and was sentenced to life in jail the following year for murder. He was a member of a Sicilian mafia group and was one of Italy's most wanted gangsters.

He was found in Spain, where he was living under the name Manuel. A Google Street View shot showing a man resembling Gammino standing in front of a grocery shop was key to tracking the fugitive, investigators say.

Sicilian police believed Gammino was in Spain, but it was the photo of him talking to a man outside Manu's Garden, that triggered an immediate investigation. His identity was confirmed when police found a Facebook page of a now-closed restaurant which was located nearby. It had posted photos of Gammino wearing chef's clothes and he was identified by a scar on his chin.

After his arrest, he reportedly told police: "How did you find me? I haven't even called my family for 10 years."

Kevin Martin was a minister at a massive church—but one of those churches where it got too burdensome. The administrative machine ate him up, and his world was blackened with depression. At one point he was so depressed, so crushed, that he hastily wrote a letter to his board, immediately resigning from office, and then wrote a letter to his wife and his children saying he would never see them again.

Kevin got in his Buick and drove up to Newfoundland, Canada, without anybody knowing where he was. He got a job as a logger. It was winter. He lived in a small metal trailer, heated at night by a small metal heater. One night, when it was 20 below, the heater stopped working. In a rage, Kevin went over to the heater, picked it up with both his hands, and chucked it out the window—then realizing that was a stupid thing to do, for it was 20 below.

He throws himself on the ground and starts pounding the floor of this small metal trailer. As he’s pounding on the floor, he is yelling out to heaven, “I hate you! I hate you! Get out of my life! I am done with this Christian game. It is over!” He went into a fetal position.

Kevin writes, I couldn’t even cry. I was too exhausted to cry. As I laid there, I heard crying, and heaving breaths, but they were not coming from me. Instead, in the bright darkness of faith, I heard Christ crying, and heaving away on the Cross. And then I knew, the blood was for me: for the Kevin who was the abandoner, the reckless wanderer, the blasphemer of heaven. And then the words rose up all around me: ‘Kevin, I am with you, and I am for you, and you will get through this. I promise you.’

Kevin rose to his feet, got into his car, sped back home, and reconciled with his family and his church. And then went on to lead that church in a healthy way.

Paul Verhoeven, a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and film producer (Robocop, Total Recall, Show Girls), was once asked about his short but intense encounter with Christianity. He replied:

My then-future wife Martine got pregnant in 1966, and we didn't want a child at the time. I was just starting my film career, and the prospect of an unplanned child might force me to abandon film at least temporarily. To a large degree, it was disturbing: during that period, I had a sense that I was losing my mind … My response was to become a member of a Pentecostal church, for a month. It was an existential need. This wasn't common in Holland in the '60s.

When asked what made him leave the church, Verhoeven said that a medical doctor provided a purely rational explanation for his experience. "[My encounter] with Christianity had an enormous impact on me," he said. But he also admitted that he made a conscious decision to renounce that experience. He said he had "to close the doors of perception" to the "subconscious elements" in his brain.

In other words, he couldn't deny the power of his encounter with supernatural reality—possibly with Christ or the Holy Spirit—but he chose to reject it. Christian author Rod Dreher had this to say about Verhoeven's explanation:

One cannot know … what was going through [his] head in those days, but it's not hard to imagine that a man who wishes to arrange his girlfriend's abortion to help save his film career would [want] to dismiss the possibility that he had [met] the living God, and instead had suffered from temporary insanity. [But] the key thing here is the role of Verhoeven's will in deciding what is real and what is not. He is up front about his choice to suppress that experience … What he is not up front about, maybe not even with himself, is his choice to deny the possibility that what he encountered in that [church] was objectively real. This too was a choice.

The Bible calls us "enemies of God." In other words, we're spiritual fugitives even when you don't know it—just like this guy. Christopher Viatafa, a 27-year-old California man, decided to find out what the internet had to say about his existence. So after engaging in what's called "egosurfing," Viatafa discovered he was on a "Northern California Most Wanted" website.

According to police, Mr. Viatafa got into an argument in 2013 during a private party and then allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired several rounds into the ground, before he was persuaded to leave. Viatafa may well have thought nothing more of the incident—until he found his name on the website. To his credit, he promptly surrendered to police and now if you Google his name you'll find him listed as a "captured fugitive."

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible calls us "enemies of God." In other words, we're spiritual fugitives even when you don't know it—just like this guy.

Most of us find peace over past sins by trying to forget and move on. We find comfort in the distance that comes with the passing of time. The further we are from our sins, the less we feel they mark our lives and the less guilty we feel …. Do I even remember half of the wrongs I've done? The truth is that I've conveniently forgotten most of my violations.

There was a newspaper story about a woman named Jill Price who has a rare condition doctors call "superior autobiographical memory." Jill can recall in vivid detail every day of her life since age fourteen. Experts at the University of California studied her for six years to confirm her ability. If you've ever wished you had a better memory, you might want to reconsider. Jill views it as a blessing and a curse. She has warm memories that comfort her in difficult times, but there's also a dark side. She recalls every bad decision, every insult, and every excruciating embarrassment. Over the years, Jill said, the memories have eaten her up. She feels paralyzed and assaulted by them. Peaceful sleep is rare.

We all want to think of ourselves as basically good people. But we can believe that illusion only because we forget most of our past decisions and actions and thoughts. But what if we remembered them perfectly? God does.

In an article for ChristianityToday.com entitled "Our Divine Distortion," Christian songwriter Carolyn Arends shared a personal story that shows how easy it is to view friends as enemies when we are racked by shame or guilt—a dangerous trait that can have an impact on how we view God. She writes:

When I found a brand new lap-top for half price on eBay, I told my friend and musical colleague Spencer about my bargain of a find. He was worried: "Usually when something's too good to be true …"

"I know," I replied impatiently, "but the seller has a 100 percent approval rating."

"Be careful," warned Spencer.

"Of course," I assured him, annoyed. I wasn't born yesterday.

I sent the seller $1,300 and discovered in very short, sickening order that I had fallen prey to a classic scam. A fraudster had hacked someone's eBay identity in order to relieve easy marks like me of our money.

I felt [like a] fool—and didn't want to tell Spencer. The next time I saw his number on my caller ID, I didn't answer. I could just imagine his "I told you so."

Soon, I was avoiding Spencer completely. And I started to resent him. Why did he have to be so judgmental? Why couldn't he be on my side? Why was I ever friends with that jerk?

Eventually, we had to fly together to perform at a concert. "Whatever happened with that computer thing?" he asked an hour into the flight. Cornered, I finally confessed my foolishness, dreading the inevitable response. But as soon as I told Spencer about my mistake, a strange thing happened. The enemy I had turned him into evaporated. Spencer turned into Spencer again, my teasing but deeply empathetic buddy.

As embarrassed as I was by my eBay error, I felt even dumber about the way I had allowed my shame to distort my perception of a best friend. If my hand had not been forced, I would have remained estranged from him indefinitely.

I've always considered myself perceptive, but the longer I live, the more I discover my susceptibility to misinterpretation. This is true of the way I view my friends, truer of the way I see my enemies, and perhaps truest of the way I perceive God.

Many of us act as if repentance is a matter of the will. [But] we can't "will" ourselves into change. We can't "will" ourselves into feeling contrition or remorse. Repentance isn't doing something about our sin; rather it means admitting that we can't do anything about our sin. We cannot woo ourselves into anything but the most external form of repentance.

All our effort, striving, and willpower have only momentary, external value when it comes to fighting an opponent as crafty, intentional, persistent, powerful, and experienced as sin. …

Understand this: The intention not to sin is not the same as the power not to sin. God did not design us to conquer sin on our own. To think we can is an incalculable undervaluing of sin's power combined with a huge over valuing of our own willpower!

In a sermon Pastor Matt Woodley shared the following story:

When I was about ten years old, my dad, a medical doctor, received a special gift from one of his patients: a beautiful globe with shiny sequins. The globe spun around on its base and played one of my dad's favorite songs. My dad proudly demonstrated how it worked: grab it by the base, slowly wind it counter-clockwise, and then release it, letting it spin clockwise while playing beautiful music. He told us, "You can touch it, but don't wind it, because you might break it."

A week later, while my dad was at work, I found the globe and brought it to my room. Although I heard my dad say, "Don't wind it up," I decided to wind it up anyway. I gave it a little twist and let it play. It played, but only for five seconds. So I gave it another twist and another twist and five more twists and then—snap! The globe separated from the base. I desperately tried to fix it. I tried forcing the two pieces together. I tried gluing it. I tried taping it. Finally, as I stared hopelessly at the two pieces of the globe, I realized it was broken beyond repair. So I went into my closet, shut the door, and hid.

It was Genesis 3 all over again.

Our world is like the broken globe: it's been twisted too far, and we can't put it back together again. Relationships break, our sexuality breaks, we're slowly breaking the Earth. Our hearts break, nations break down and go to war, our health breaks, our politics break. All the glue, tape, and positive thinking can't put it back together again.

Kirsten Strand writes:

I have learned that ignoring a calling can lead to depression, anger, frustration, and a deep dissatisfaction with life. And I have learned that following a calling can also lead to moments of depression, anger, frustration, and loneliness. Yet, underneath those feelings will be a profound sense of peace and satisfaction.

Nita Friedman is not the type of person you would imagine to be involved in a police pursuit. Still, that's what happened on U.S. highway 95 after Bonners Ferry, Idaho, police chief Mike Hutter tried to stop her for reckless driving. Hutter flipped on his lights and siren, but instead of pulling over, the 66-year-old woman pulled away.

Police chased the woman through two counties. The chase did not end until after the State Police put a spike strip in the road in front of Friedman's car. After driving over it, the woman tried to keep going, but with three flat tires escape became impossible.

What astounded law enforcement officers was that throughout the entire 15-mile chase, Friedman never went over the speed limit. Once, she even stopped behind a vehicle that was making a left turn. While running from the law, Nita Friedman was determined not to break the law.

It's like the pastor facing expulsion from her church. Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud vows she has not violated her denomination's trust, but acknowledges she lives with her lesbian lover.

It's like my friend who maintains the highest standards of integrity in his business relationships, yet candidly admits to filing false tax forms to the IRS.

It's like when I pray for God's will to be done and then insist on having things my own way.

It's like hiding sin in my heart while offering worship.

It's obedience while running away.

In his book Ghost Soldiers, Hampton Sides tells the story of a dramatic mission during World War II. On January 28th, 1945, 121 hand-selected Army Rangers slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POW's who had spent three years in a hellish prison camp near the city of Cabanatuan.

Sides describes the first effects of liberation as chaos and fear. The prisoners were too mentally brittle to understand what was taking place. Some even scurried away from their liberators.

One particular prisoner, Bert Bank, refused to budge, even when a Ranger walked right up to him and tugged his arm.

"C'mon, we're here to save you," he said. "Run for the gate."

Bank still would not move. The Ranger looked into his eyes and saw they were vacant, registering nothing.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked. "Don't you want to be free?"

A smile formed on Bank's lips as the meaning of the words became clear, and he reached up to the outstretched hand of the Ranger.

The Rangers searched all the barracks for additional prisoners, then shouted, "The Americans are leaving. Is there anybody here?" Hearing no answer, they left.

But there was one more POW—, Edwin Rose. Edwin had been on latrine duty and somehow missed all the shooting and explosions. When he wandered back to his barracks, he failed to notice the room was empty and lay down on his straw mat and fell asleep. Edwin had missed the liberation. But there was a reason why. Edwin was deaf.

Four Americans died in the rescue; two Rangers in the firefight and two prisoners who perished for reasons of poor health. The freed prisoners marched 25 miles and boarded their ship home. With each step, their stunned disbelief gave way to soaring optimism. Even Edwin Rose made it. He finally woke up and realized liberation had come.

Humorist James Thurber wrote:

"All human beings should try to learn, before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why."

When David Horton decided to go to a Cincinnati Reds ballgame with his girlfriend, he knew he was a wanted man. He had failed to appear in court for a drug charge. As it happened, his parole officer attended the same game. During the game, the wanted man decided to give his girlfriend a smooch, and that kiss was displayed on the "Kiss Cam." Everyone at the Great American Ball Park saw the kiss, including the parole officer. Before the night was out, the parole officer and a policeman arrested Horton, 24, in his front-row seat.

"Out of all the coincidences, we had 20- or 30-thousand people at the ballpark, and who do they put on the 'Kiss Cam'? And then, who is there but his parole officer?" said Richard Goldberg, Horton's attorney. If convicted, he could face up to 18 years in prison.

The Princess Diaries tells the story of Amelia Thermopolis, a shy, awkward teen whose only goal in life is to be invisible. She tries to get through each day with as little embarrassment as possible. Her world is turned upside down when estranged grandmother (Julie Andrews) comes to America to give Amelia the biggest news of her life.

Amelia visits her grandmother at her opulent mansion in San Francisco. A butler leads Amelia to the grand living room, where she stands amazed as several servants bustle about. Suddenly, all the servants stand at attention as Amelia's grandmother enters the room. The contrast between Amelia and her refined grandmother is painfully apparent. After some small talk, Amelia, feeling uncomfortable, finally asks her grandmother, "What is it you want to tell me?"

Her grandmother answers, "Something, I believe, that will have a very big impact on your life." They walk outside to talk, and her grandmother begins to explain. "Amelia, have you ever heard of Eduard Cristof Philip Gerard Renaldi?"

"No," Amelia responds. Her grandmother tells Amelia he was the crown prince of Genovia.

Amelia is as baffled as she is indifferent and shrugs her shoulders. "What about him?" she asks.

Her grandmother says, "Eduard Cristof Philip Gerard Renaldi was also your father."

Thinking her grandmother is only joking, she laughs, rolls her eyes in disbelief, and says, "If he was a prince, that would make me a—"

"Exactly," says her grandmother, "a princess. You see, you are not just Amelia Thermopolis. You are Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, the princess of Genovia."

Amelia can hardly speak as this new revelation sinks in. "Me…a…a…a princess? Why on earth would you pick me to be your princess?

"Since your father died, you are the natural heir to the throne of Genovia. That's our law. I'm royal by marriage; you are royal by blood. You can rule."

Mia blurts out: "Rule?! Oh no, oh no, no, no, no. Now you have really got the wrong girl. I never lead anybody, not at Brownies, not at Campfire Girls. Queen Clarisse, my expectation in life is to be invisible, and I am good at it. I don't want to be a princess!!

The Bible says we are heirs of the God of the universe. The implications of that are far more surprising.

Elapsed time: 00:12:55 to 00:15:48 (DVD scene 4).

Content: Rated G

In The Divine Intruder, James R. Edwards recounts this story:

Wilmer McLean was a small farmer in the Shenandoah Valley in 1861. In the spring of that year two powerful armies met on his property;the Union army under General McDowell and the Confederate army under General Beauregard. The bloodiest war in American history began at Bull Run, a creek that ran through McLean's property. McLean was not at all sure why the armies were fighting, but he was quite sure he did not want them fighting on his property. If he could not change the course of the war, he at least did not have to be part of it. McLean decided to sell out and go where the war would never find him.

He chose the most obscure place in the whole country—or so he thought: an old house in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Four years later General Grant was pursuing General Lee through Virginia. In Appomattox County, Grant sent a message to Lee asking him to meet and sign a truce. The place where they met to sign the peace that ended the Civil War was Wilmer McLean's living room!

Some things you cannot get away from.

It is said that Dr. Mortimer Adler suddenly left a discussion group at a tea quite disgusted, slamming the door after him. One person trying to relieve the tension, remarked, "Well, he's gone." To this the hostess replied, "No, he isn't. That's a closet!" We share the same plight when we attempt to rush from God's presence. We are confined to ourselves.