When we think of prison many images come to our minds. It could be the shackles on someone’s feet or hands preventing them from getting away from the authorities. The orange, or “black and white” striped clothing that many prisoners uniformly wear as part of living in the prison. It could be the barred doors, the barbed wire, the yelling and screaming from other prisoners, or the cold, institutional looking cells. Whatever your opinion or picture, prison is a place to house those who have chosen to disobey civil laws causing intentional or unintentional harm to others. Violators of justice are sent to prison to protect civilians from being harmed again while giving the offender the potential to be rehabilitated themselves. The same can be true with the inner prisons that we intentionally build around our souls as a means to “protect them from the outside world.” Those living on the “outside of our lives” looking into our life may not be able to detect this prison through casual conversation. The prisons we construct are often gradual, piece by piece, layer by layer as we experience inner pain from the outside world. The true self that is represented by the soul can be “attacked” by the outside world for not conforming to a culture that often desires assimilation and uniformity. Every time we hold back from saying something that we truly believe (in a way that honors the other person, yet holds our principles in tact) so that an uneasy truce between the relationships can be held, another piece of the inner prison goes up). Whenever we tell ourselves, we are not good at anything, and we choose to live a life purely of routine and familiarity, without exploring the depths of talent and gifting’s given to us by our Divine Author, we are closing the barred doors to the inner cell of the heart. Or whenever we see suffering in the world, feel that it’s a tragedy, yet do take action to bring justice for others because we are “too busy” trying to drown out the inner cries of our true self by making our outer selves appear important and “all together” we are placing the barbed wire around our inner cells so that our true self cannot escape.
How can we break through such an oppressive inner sentence where we proclaim ourselves the judge, jury, and hall monitor of our inner selves?
Back when the emancipation proclamation was instated in 1863, not many slaves, living in prisons of their own, were freed. It was not until the 13th amendment was adopted in 1865 where slavery was official abolished in the United States despite its presence in modern day through other means such as Human Trafficking. Despite the victory won for human freedom, many people continued to live as slaves as they did not know anything about Abraham Lincoln, or the freedom that they were given except that they knew there was a freedom possible and that there was an Abraham Lincoln. For those of us living in our own inner prisons, we can take comfort that there is a Divine Emancipator in our midst who desires to set us free from our self-made prisons. It is when we become aware of this Divine Emancipator and His sacrificial work on our behalf where we can experience the joy and freedom from the inner slavery to addictions, emotional turmoil, seemingly insurmountable stress, and inner wounds we have received. Despite the many layers of emotional brick and steel that we try to surround our true selves with, our Divine Emancipator designed our true selves and knows who we are on the inside out. In fact, he was the one who was able to escape a fortified tomb from the inside out with guards patrolling outside in case someone tried to free him from the outside in. As we get to know the Diving Emancipator who is on the outside, and invites us to bring him into the darkest areas of our insides, let us ask ourselves a question: what might the Divine Emancipator be up to in our lives today in tearing down the bricks of our inner prison?
How can we break through such an oppressive inner sentence where we proclaim ourselves the judge, jury, and hall monitor of our inner selves?
Back when the emancipation proclamation was instated in 1863, not many slaves, living in prisons of their own, were freed. It was not until the 13th amendment was adopted in 1865 where slavery was official abolished in the United States despite its presence in modern day through other means such as Human Trafficking. Despite the victory won for human freedom, many people continued to live as slaves as they did not know anything about Abraham Lincoln, or the freedom that they were given except that they knew there was a freedom possible and that there was an Abraham Lincoln. For those of us living in our own inner prisons, we can take comfort that there is a Divine Emancipator in our midst who desires to set us free from our self-made prisons. It is when we become aware of this Divine Emancipator and His sacrificial work on our behalf where we can experience the joy and freedom from the inner slavery to addictions, emotional turmoil, seemingly insurmountable stress, and inner wounds we have received. Despite the many layers of emotional brick and steel that we try to surround our true selves with, our Divine Emancipator designed our true selves and knows who we are on the inside out. In fact, he was the one who was able to escape a fortified tomb from the inside out with guards patrolling outside in case someone tried to free him from the outside in. As we get to know the Diving Emancipator who is on the outside, and invites us to bring him into the darkest areas of our insides, let us ask ourselves a question: what might the Divine Emancipator be up to in our lives today in tearing down the bricks of our inner prison?
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