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Several years ago, my dad took me on a trip to see my uncle who was in prison. I’m not sure if the objective was to deter bad behavior or to simply spend time with my uncle behind bars. Either way, the trip left an impression on me that has lasted to this day.
Surprisingly, the interaction was pretty normal. He was at a prison farm. He didn’t seem to be in any danger, and seemed like he was eating everyday. As we were leaving, one moment stood out that I have never been able to forget. As we were walking out of the prison, my uncle stood there, hands clenching the fence, waving goodbye with tears forming in his eyes.
I began to think, “Wow, he will not see his family for the next couple of years. He will miss out on all holidays and special moments while he’s serving his sentence.”
This was a concept that was foreign to me — how would it feel to have your life taken from you? But then I began to think deeper… I thought, “What kind of life did he have if it landed him in prison in the first place?”
What I have learned over the last few years is that being imprisoned has little to do with your body and more to do with your soul.
What I’ve realized is that pretty much everyone in society is imprisoned. Most of us live all year to break away from a life that has us bound during a two week period called “vacation.” I honestly never understood the concept of vacation. I remember asking my dad, “Why take a vacation? If life is better somewhere else, why not just move there?”
Society has trapped and imprisoned all of us into living for ourselves. We spend all of our time and money living for our kids, and we are heartbroken when they go to college and don’t want to speak to us. We spend all of our time living to please our spouses, and we are heartbroken when it seems like everything we do never measures up.
"But the married man is anxious about worldly matters—how he may please his wife—And he is drawn in diverging directions [his interests are divided and he is distracted from his devotion to God]." - 1 Corinthians 7:33-34 AMPC
We go to work every day just to make money that will help us afford to go to work tomorrow.
"What profit does man have left from all his toil at which he toils under the sun? [Is life worth living?]" - Ecclesiastes 1:3 AMPC
It’s easy to look at my uncle and see the bars that have confined him, but I have a question for you today — what bars have confined you? Are you trapped and living to please people who you know aren’t worth it?
Isn’t it interesting that the apostle Paul refers to himself as being a bond servant for Christ? He says that he can only do what is in God’s will; Even when he wants to go and preach about God to a group of people, he has to submit his will ultimately to God.
"I keep pleading that somehow by God’s will I may now at last prosper and come to you." - Romans 1:10 AMPC
Another interesting thing about Paul is that when he is imprisoned physically, he still has freedom through Christ which allows him to inspire and uplift his fellow inmates.
"But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the [other] prisoners were listening to them," - Acts 16:25 AMPC
Paul says that it is no longer he that lives, but Christ that lives through him. And even when that commitment led him to prison, he still experienced true freedom.
"I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me." - Galations 2:20 AMPC
Question of the day: Are you experiencing true freedom living for Christ, or are you in desperate need of a vacation?