Running Against the Tide

Spain’s Pamplona Bull Run, which ends Wednesday, began long ago as an annual religious festival in honor of San Fermin, a Catholic saint and martyr. By the 19th century it had become commercialized and included street theatre, human cannonballs, and circus animals. In 1926, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises attracted people from all over the world to the event, and today’s festival is overcrowded with thrillseekers and enthusiasts.

Spanish-fiestas.com goes on to describe the event:
“The Pamplona bull run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th [of] July. Runners must be in the running area by 7.30am. The actual run stretches from the corral at Santo Domingo where the bulls are kept, to the bullring where they will fight that same afternoon. The length of the run is 825 metres [about 1/2 mile] and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes…

“First [the bulls and runners] climb Santo Domingo and go across the Ayuntamiento Square…The most dangerous part of the bullrun approaches as there's a closed curve leading into Estafeta which is the longest stretch of the run. Next comes a small section of Duque de Ahumada which is known as the Telefónica stretch. The last stretch is also very risky as the route leads into a dead end street providing access to the Bull Ring.

“The vast number of people taking part in the bullrun nowadays adds to the already considerable danger of running alongside wild bulls weighing in the region of 700kg [1500 lbs.] each. Too many drunks taking part also increase the risks for everybody. There are plenty security guards and first aid personnel but there is little they can do during the running of the bulls such that 15 people have died and over 200 been seriously injured since 1924.”

In Matthew 6 Jesus urges His followers not to worry about what they will eat, what they will drink, what they will wear. The pagans, He said, run after all these kinds of things, but you are to trust that Your Heavenly Father knows what you need and will provide all that is necessary for His perfect will to be accomplished in your life. So don’t worry about tomorrow. Prepare, yes. Do all you ought to provide for yourself and loved ones, yes. But worry?... no.

Don’t worry about tomorrow? Oh, my. That’s irresponsible. That’s risky. That’s running against the tide of humanity. When you try to envision living like that, you see yourself pounding the pavement of Pamplona, turning the corner, and discovering that you’re going the wrong way! A veritable tidal wave of humanity – and a few thousand pounds of enraged animal – are bearing down on you without mercy. In seconds you will be mowed down, mashed flat, mulched by Nikes and hard, sharp hooves.

But picture this: you say a desperate prayer and move out to face the overwhelming odds. And miracle of miracles, a slim way opens just as the tidal waves hits. It’s a mini-parting of the Red Sea, engineered by God just for you. He’s making it possible for you to keep going the “wrong way” on a one-way street, in the opposite direction of a crowd hell-bent for a dead-end.

Keep that picture in your mind over the next weeks as we continue to learn about “The Kingdom Experience.” We will hear things that will sound foreign to the crowd around us. We will be asked to run the “wrong way,” to think and act differently than those we work with and live near. But don’t let the thought of changing direction, of turning to face an oncoming wall of humanity, become too much to ask.

Trust God to split the crowd and make a way for you, one humble little soul, to walk against the flow. For you to take on, through His power, the pressure and weight and influence of an entire culture that has rejected the Kingdom Experience… and emerge, as Jesus promised in His Sermon on the Mount, blessed – “Happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction, regardless of [your] outward conditions” (Mt. 5:3 Amp).

Olé!