The Prisons We Live In

Where does our past fit in to the total picture of our past, present and future?

Does it have any value - any place - any purpose?

George Santayana said, "If we don't learn from history [the past] we are destined to repeat it."

We in America have not learned from history - which is why we are repeating it now. How pitiful to repeat the third grade over again and again. It doesn't make sense. Yet here we are, enmeshed and absorbed in costly conflagrations and roilng relationships which we should not be involved in and should have risen above - long ago!

Wasted effort. Wasted time. Wasted energy. Wasted money. Wasted lives. Wasted resources. Wasted lessons. Spinning our wheels - and getting no where!

What does this say? It simply says we've failed the third grade - not just once but twice. Not just twice but three times. We have chosen to stay in the third grade for the rest of our lives. Not too bright.

We have destined ourselves to be being permanently left back. Permanant failures. By choice, no less. No one forced us to stay there. We stay there by choice!

Why pay for a mistake more than once? Shouldn't once be enough?

So much for the nation.

Each of us has a life to live. The trouble is that each of us avoids the race of life by giving excuses. "I was never rich." "I never had an education." "I have been sick all my life." "I have no arms." "I came from a poor family."

I have a video (you can see it on my Facebook site) about Nick Vujicic from Australia who was born without arms or legs. Happy? He is ecstatic about life. He participates in all sports - swimming, diving, soccer, speedboat riding, golf - you name it! The video shows him playing - and enjoying himself! He refuses to live in a dwarfed past. He refuses to keep looking to the way he was born as an excuse not to forge ahead in life and live it to the full.

He goes up and down stairs with ease (Yes, no arms, no legs - no devices). He is a college graduate (he turns the pages with his tongue - any problem with that?). He threw the word "excuse" out the window long ago.

John Bunyan in the 1600's spent 12 years in prison for "preaching." Nor were prisons in those days comfortable. No air conditioning. Little heat in winter. No light. No sanitation. Dark, dank, damp, dismal. But it is there he happily wrote one of the three best-selling books of all time - "Pilgrim's Progress."

My friend (mass-murderer) The son of Sam in prison for life, near me, is the happiest man in the world. Joyful. Fulfilled. Sharing with others and encouraging others and giving men life - and hope.
When offered parole he said "No - I don't deserve it!" and chose to stay in prison.

What characterizes each of these men is that they have given their lives to Christ and He has filled and fulfilled their lives beyond their wildest expectations.

Nick refuses to allow his past to dictate his future. John Bunyan refused to spend his life in his squalid prison cell bemoaning his misfortunes. The son of Sam refuses to spend the rest of his life simply being a shadow of his former self.

No matter what our past, Christ has carved out a fantastic future for each of us. Our purpose and privilelge is to devote the rest of our lives to enjoying and cultivating that future.

Now!

It is available in one place alone - and available freely - in Christ!

Jesus alone "led captivity captive" (Eph. 4:8), "hears the groaning of the prisoner" (Ps. 102:20) and "sets the prisoner free!" (Is. 61:1).