One of my all time favorite movies is the Shawshank Redemption. For those of you who have seen it know why. For those of you who have not, you need to. This is a classic tale of how fate deals a bad hand, but in the end the one who is dealt the hand wins. A man wrongly accused of murdering his wife is sent to prison to serve time he does not deserve. During his tenure at the prison named "Shawshank" he encounters and befriends a group of guys. Men that he will spend years and years of his life with. They become family. One of these men entered the prison in his early twenties...and finally made parole at the age of 70 something. Once he was on the "outside" he was not happy. He ultimately ended up killing himself because he didn't know how to live. He didn't know how to be a free man. He had spent so many years behind bars that it was the bars that comforted him. I wonder how many of us are institutionalized by the supernatural. Bitterness, hatred, fear. All prisons (just to name a few). Prisons that in a morbid sense make us feel safe. Safe because that is what we know. We harbor such feelings and practice behaviors that are embedded deep into the 6x6 cell of our souls. As we look through the bars we wonder, "what would it be like if I didn't let this feeling or attitude imprison me any longer?" As we begin to think, we slowly convince ourselves that it's a bad idea. After all, we know all about the place we are in now. These are feelings of familiarity. Feelings we know. Life beyond the prison walls, well it's just to uncertain. We are terrified of the unknown.
Before we know it we have turned into the very monster we swore upon death we would never be.
We can be free of our prisons...you and I. Scared? Scared you won't know what to do....how to act. There will be so much more time for love, and peace, and sleep....those of you in prison know what I am talking about.
The Shawshank Redemption has a very happy ending. Andy gets his freedom and he takes a good friend with him. After being institutionalized, he realized that there is more...more to life than prison. We should learn the same lesson.
Let Jesus set you free. Be free to live, laugh, love. Free to forgive and be forgiven. Free to spread your wings and fly. Just free.
John 8:36 - So if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.
Just think about that.
