Children play "Hide and Seek." It is a simple game with a simple objective.
Ideally, several children play. One person is designated as "it." "It"
closes his or her eyes at "home base" and counts to a hundred. While "it"
counts, everyone else hides. "It" finds the hiding children.
Often adults try to turn life into a game of "hide and seek." In the adult
game, "I" is never "it." "I" am always seeking to hide. And "I" constantly
change my hiding places.
The perfect adult hiding place (a) permanently hides me, and (b) allows me
to pretend reality is what I wish reality to be. My hiding place allows me
to escape from realities to pretense. Pretense allows me to become
increasingly self-absorbed.
As my pretense grows, my neglect causes pain to those around me. My
shrinking world focuses on "me and my desires," and those in my life suffer
the pain of neglect.
All types of hiding places claim to be the perfect place to hide. Some
teens yearn to enter adult life because adult existence is the perfect place
to hide. When they become adults, what do they discover? The demands and
responsibilities of adult life exceed those of teen life.
Some singles consider marriage the ideal hiding place. Marriage offers
escape from undesirable realities. When a person marries to escape, what
does he or she discover? Marriage is filled with realities. When those
realities are neglected, marriage becomes oppressive.
Some adults think unique job opportunities are ideal hiding places. They
can "lose themselves" in their work. When a person works to hide, what does
he or she discover? What seemed glamorous and fulfilling is actually full
of realities that can (and do) produce enormous stress, incredible
competition, and undesired vulnerability.
When escape is our dominant motivation, often "original" hiding places prove
inadequate. When my hiding place does not permit complete escape, I need a
better place to hide. Hiding's importance increasingly stresses escape.
The desire to hide combined with the objective of escaping often produces an
addiction. The addiction may be as simple as recreational pleasure (sports
competitions, hunting, fishing, golf, travel, etc.) or as devastating as
something destructive (drugs, alcohol, pornography, affairs, one-night
stands, etc.). Whether simple or devastating, addiction's objective is the
same--escaping to the ideal hiding place.
Age destroys the ability to run. Death makes hiding useless. Let God teach
you how to live instead of running. The person who hides life in God lives
life fully--and never dies.
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