The Prison of Freedom

(by Lorie Codispoti)

A prison is a place of involuntary confinement.

I’ve often referred to the lift chair I sit in all day as a prison. It’s where I’ve spent the majority of my waking hours for the past two and a half years. Throughout the course of my sentence, I’ve tried everything within my power to escape, as well as exhausting every appeal process you can imagine. I’ve ridden the roller coaster of emotions and have prayers to match every unending series of twists and turns.

It's a love/hate relationship. There are days I’m grateful and days I curse the confinement. But, even on the worst days I end with a grateful heart for the God who is teaching me that the bars that confine me have been assigned the task of revealing true freedom.

EVERYONE IS A PRISONER

As much as we’d like to convince ourselves that we are free agents, with the ability to escape the limitations we don’t like, we aren’t.

Think about it. We don’t get to choose our birth day, gender, or age of death. Each of us lives in a temporary body (subject to all manner of pain and suffering), on a dying planet. We are bound by certain things we have no control over. Two examples: 1) I enjoy a good time travel movie, but the reality is that I can’t harness time. I have no power to stop, reverse, or push fast-forward on the universal clock. 2) I might have fanciful dreams of flying or breathing underwater, but I’m neither a bird or a mermaid, and it would be suicidal for me to test the laws of nature. We are not free agents with the power to will away our boundaries.

Adam’s sin exiled us from the freedom of God’s created confinement and His holy presence. On this side of Eden, we are all prisoners serving out a sentence of death.

But, that’s not the end of the story!

God became a man who willingly entered our exile. He incarcerated Himself in order to “set the captives free” (Luke 4:18). His finished work unlocked the prison doors and provided a way for us to re-enter into God’s presence.

YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME

When you are imprisoned by an inescapable circumstance, it can feel incredibly hopeless. Of all the biblical and post-biblical accounts I’ve read, the thing that determines whether a prisoner suffers with or without hope is completely dependent on who’s in charge. In this world we all serve time in circumstances we didn’t sign up for (financial, relational, health, persecution, etc.). We may not get to choose our prison, but we have the option of choosing between a warden who aims to destroy us and the One who uses our suffering to strengthen our hope and build our faith.

Did you hear that? If you feel hopelessly bound by your circumstance, YOU, Christian, have the power to change who’s in charge. You get to tell the devil, “You’re not the boss of me!”

HOPE RESTORES

In his great affliction, Job said, “My spirit is broken. My days are extinguished, the grave is ready for me.” (Job 17:1) In his despair he asks, “Where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?” (Job17:15)

I’m not sure you can be any more hopeless and broken than Job was. However, something happened in the prison of his suffering that changed everything. By the end of his story Job testifies, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (42:5) (FYI, this was before God healed and restored him.)

What was it? What broke into the prison of his pain and changed everything?

Hope!

“Hope is a revolution, a powerful Presence that breaks in from the future and transforms today. Jesus’ arrival has brought God’s destiny for humanity crashing into now—an explosion of life into a world marked by death. It changes everything.” (InTouchMinistries)

PRISONER OF HOPE

Zechariah was a Babylonian captive who returned to Jerusalem when the exiles were released. God’s people had started rebuilding the temple, but for over 12 years they were on a self-imposed hiatus, leaving the temple in a half finished state. They needed to be motivated to get off their buns and get back to work. God commissioned Zechariah to encourage them. He reminded them of the importance of finishing the temple - the Messiah is coming and will inhabit and reign in this temple - and they needed to be prepared to receive Him. It was imperative that they heed his instructions, as their future blessing depended on their present obedience.

“Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope….” (Zech.9:12)

To be a “prisoner of hope” means the same thing for us as it did in Zechariah’s day.

The return of Christ is imminent. No matter how difficult our situation is, now is not the time to retreat and cower in the corner of our cell. It’s not the time to justify a self-imposed hiatus. Our greatest need during our most intense times of suffering, is to RETURN to the fortified place of Hope. Christ is our fortress of hope. It’s in Him, not outside of Him, that we “live and move and have our being.”

Do you want to survive? If so, “return.” Daily!

HOLD ON

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” (Heb.10:23)

I have the ability to “hold” on to Christ... to “return to the stronghold” in my daily affliction... not because I have a strong grip. (I can't even hold a cup without using both hands.) I can "hold" onto Him because Christ is holding on to me. And, because His “righteous right hand”(Isa.41:10) is very strong, I have no need to fear. I am safe and secure in the fortress of His presence.

I continue to lament the physical freedom I’ve lost as I serve time in this chair. There are days when it feels as if the bars are closing in on me, like a python slowly asphyxiating its prey. But, then I hear the Voice of Hope, calling me to return to the fortification of Christ. He reminds me that this is the place where His temple is being built. And if I surrender to His loving Oversight, He will crush the head of the snake, and the bars of confinement will give way to the greatest freedom I’ve ever known.