Runaway Tactics: Understanding our default

Why do they run?'

I can't recount how many times I have been asked this question over 2 decades of street kids ministry.

Visitors and sponsors find it difficult to understand.

Why do they run away from home?

Why do they run away from House of Joshua?

'It doesn't make sense!'

They have everything they need here!'.

'The streets are so dangerous!'

If you ask a street child the 'why?' question the answer is tied to a perception of freedom and a need to regain control or escape a (real or imagined) threat.

We all do it!

Our brains are wired for fight or flight. Survival depends on our choice!

We are all runaways!

We may not physically move anywhere but we mentally and emotionally use countless escape routes as exits from internal chaos; choosing food, social media, friends, Netflix, alcohol, work, TV, holidays, books, music, hobbies, sports, video games....

Self medications to lower stress, relieve the pain and distract from the real issues of struggling to cope.

These are flight elopes. Our momentary affairs from reality that temporarily offer some freedom shaped relief and divert from turmoil or having to take more responsibility.

We are quick to judge the kid who runs away often in a fleeting instant of reflex reaction rather than measured logical thought. We fail to see the plank blinding us to our mirrorred position and responses. None of us want to remain in pain and discomfort; we just 'want to be free!'

Truly there is nothing 'free' about life on the streets. It is an enticing deceptive prison of physical, emotional and spiritual poverty: seductive, addictive and indeed dangerous. The streets have a powerful magnetic pull like a bait persuading with distorted perception that it offers something 'more' - a fake mirage.

Until we each confront our artificial freedom seeking runs we remain in jails of our own construction; disconnected from truth and separated from the opportunity of discovering who we really are. 

We have to break the crooked illusion that running away in any form is a deliverance.

To choose REAL freedom requires sacrifice and great courage. A price too high and too risky to unlock what really lies beneath the surface. The preference for temporary comfort and familiarity is more tempting than the battle to overcome ourselves. 

This has been the most asked question in 20 years of children's ministry. Instead of answering or explaining I now merely ask a question of my own...

"Why do you run?"

I am usually met with shock followed by quiet realisation!

I am a runaway too!

For more information about our ministry work: Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc.