PRISONERS

No doubt you have shaken your head a few times, wondered how it was possible, and found some of the information stomach turning.  I am assuming that because I am not sure how any human being could respond to the information that continues to be made available concerning the three young women who were held captive for 10 years in a home in Cleveland differently. 

              

There are many questions that I have and you probably as well.

Regardless of our questions, the reality is that these women were held prisoner and subjected to horrific treatment for ten years, and then were set free.

Not to belittle their torture, or the horrific treatment to which they were subjected, this story is a metaphor for our lives.

We are all held prisoner.  We are imprisoned by our fears, our success, and our failures.  We are imprisoned by an image we are trying to maintain and emotional events of the past, by people’s expectations, by our status, and by our needs.  We are imprisoned by addictions, by materialism, and by our perceptions. 

The Apostle Paul talks about our prison:

“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”  (Romans 7:22-23)

We are prisoners of things we don’t even realize imprison us.  We are held in our own house of horrors. 

Paul draws this conclusion:

“What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this death?  Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  (Romans 7:24-25)

Jesus rescued us from our eternal imprisonment; from living in our own eternal “house of horrors”.  We are delivered from whatever imprisons us currently and from our eternal prison. 

The women who had been held prisoners and their families celebrate their release with unbridled joy. 

Our lives should be lives lived with unbridled joy!

~Rev