I watched as she, filled with unbridled enthusiasm, addressed a small group of people. It was astounding to me as just hours earlier she’d been so subdued and somber, this friend of mine. She wasn’t putting on a show, though. This was real and exuberant, and I was curious.
She’d been unhappy in her job for quite some time, I knew. She felt trapped there, as if she’d agreed to something that she thought would be okay but found out the hard way that it wasn’t. There was no room for improvement. No possible way up and out from where she was, and even when seeking something different, she’d come up with dead end after dead end.
But then…options. The news of possible freedom sooner than later, and the prospect of being valued and paid in accordance. She breathed deep that news and it filled her sails like a fresh wind.
We get tricked all the time that our own dead end will be our final resting place. We buy the lie that there’s no way out, that we’re just stuck where we are because “we made our bed” and, of course, we have to lie in it. Yes, we have an enemy, you and I.
But we also have a Savior.
A Savior who gently lifts our chin and reminds us that we’re not stuck anywhere. He blew the doors off any cages in which we ever might find ourselves a full two thousand years ago, so He reminds you of that, takes your hand and walks you out. He gives you options because there are no dead ends in the life He came to give.
There is nothing – NOTHING – dead except the sin He conquered.
So, go. Take His hand and walk out. There is no padlocked door on that cage. Just a waiting boat on which to sail the open seas of freedom.
Listen, and hear the sails snap taut, filled with a fresh wind.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 ESV
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 ESV
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 ESV
“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” Psalm 18:19 NIV
“Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:4-5 MSG
‘gently lifts your chin … takes your hand ..’ beautiful. this is lovely.
This is such an uplifting post! It just draws you in amd makes you feel like the one being set free!!
God’s resurrection power lifted a dead man out of the grave. That same power can deliver the weary out of dead-end circumstances. That all-important knowledge is indeed a refreshing wind!