Extreme Hide and Seek

These are the shoes that play Extreme Hide and Seek. It was the hit of the summer with Andy and his friends. They played it at least twice a week before the bugs got bad. They played it out in the dead of night at a friend's property with 2 acres, and they played it on the concrete wth lights at Atwater High School. They fell through plastic covering feed for animals, fell into bogs, and ran into trees. There are rules. ....The rules are:
Two people are it. They have to count to 100 before searching for everyone . Everyone hides. If you are found you can run. You're not it until you are tagged.
The game is over when two people have been tagged.
Sometimes we set up boundaries. It struck me as curious how much this "game" describes a lot of us. While hiding, the kids get dirty, afraid (it's hecka dark out there), and the adrenaline is pumping like crazy. They become paranoid at the smallest noise, fearing they have been discovered. When we hide our feelings, our comings and goings, our inner thoughts, it can be dangerous. When our hiding becomes a dark secret, we feel dirty, and if it becomes apparent our hiding is going to be discovered, paranoia and fear set in. We sweat. Why? Because from the beginning of time, hiding has never been a positive experience. Think about Adam and Eve. They hid from God. They hid so that He would not discover their disobedience to Him. When we try to hide from God and others our darkness or hurt, our past, even our dreams, it is almost certain we will hit an unexpected force, that compels us to be found. When someone discovers us, someone who is safe, and we are caught, we shouldn't keep running until we have to be tackled or pinned to the ground, we should give up and allow ourselves to be found. The One who always knows where we are hiding desires us to be found. On the other hand, seeking can be good. We were never meant to hide in a muddy bog or exhaust ourselves trying to find a better hiding place. When we seek and find out the truth, in ourselves and others, we break the bonds of fear and darkness, and when Light reveals the hiding places, it can be embarrassing, but don't we always feel better? The game is over, we can rest. We feel good when we are not the ones hiding anymore. We always given a new chance to seek. Hide and Seek was always a nervewracking game for me, unless I was the one who was found and was given the chance to seek. THAT was always pure relief to me. Take a chance. Stop hiding. Be the one seeking the Truth that will dissolve our fears, release us from darkness, and keep us out of the mud in the dark.