Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free quickly and easily. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For 30 minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock.
Harry Houdini was trapped. The clock was ticking....and he was genuinely scared.
The mind is a powerful thing. For some of us, we’ve been trying to figure out how to be happy... how to break free... for a long time. Every time we think we have it solved, we struggle with the lock... and hear the sound...
click.
We try something new... we beg God... we act nicer... we treat people a little better... all trying to somehow impress God so He will lift the burden of the prison we’re in.
click. Still locked.
Anger, frustration, and doubt all begin to replace what little hope we had left. We are in prison... and it seems that it is where we are bound to stay. That bad decision, word that was said, past discrepancy... all gatekeepers to a cell that seems permanently sealed. The lock won’t budge... and whatever happiness we may have once had is a memory.
Is there a way out? What will set us free?
What does God suggest we do about it?
Before we discover that... let’s go back to our story of Houdini:
Finally, after laboring for 2 hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind it was locked and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.
Houdini escaped the cell because he stopped struggling with the lock on a door that wasn’t locked to start with.
We do the same thing every day. Our mind holds us prisoner in a cell that isn’t locked.
God tells us to handle it this way:
Psalm 46:1 “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’”
Be still. Hardly our first reaction to being locked down...beaten up... or shaken.
Ever used a finger prison? Those gags where you put the tips of your index fingers into the ends of a braided paper cylinder. When you tug on them, you can’t get your fingers loose. The trick? Don’t tug. Relax and slowly remove each finger individually.
When we quit struggling... when we stop pushing... when we cease trying to force it... when we let God be God... He reveals that what is holding us back isn’t our circumstances, it is our perception of the power of the lock.
In fact, if you look closely at the lock, you can see the manufacturer. Can you see it? It isn’t Master or Yardley or even Black & Decker.
It says Satan on it... and he wants you to think it’s the strongest lock ever made. What you did is unforgiveable... who you are is unchangeable... what happened is irreversible.
Not true.
God wants to be God in our lives. He wants us to relax...refocus...and realize that He is working ahead of things... that Grace is for us too... and that He is key to our happiness.
When Christ resurrected, the door to every cell in every prison in every mind sprung open. Don’t focus on the lock of your circumstances... push on the door. It’s open. God made sure of it. If you’ve been bound... stop struggling. Give those heavy chains to God and gently push against what seems to be permanently holding you in.
Trust me... that door will open and you will be released.
Released from pain, guilt, inadequacy, low self-esteem, past failure... Does the pain go away? Not immediately, but the only way to start the process...the first step to true freedom from what has held us in... is the release from the unlocked prison.
I can hear doors swinging open all over the world. Let the healing begin.
