Freedom Is For You

It was the old house on Coleman Road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees. The lawn consumed by one too many pine-cones that one too many afternoons were spent picking up. Its old charm drew in the prayers of a couple to one day find that place as their home. The rooms were large and perfect for children. The kitchen was characterized by old brick floors that brought this old home some country charm. Memories were made as children grew up in this home, birthdays and graduations took place. It was home. But this home had secrets. Black started to creep through the ceiling of a young girl’s bedroom weighing down the ceiling until it bulged above her head. Cracks on the side of the house reminding the owners just how old it was. Digging deep revealed the secrets this house was possessing. This house was infested with black toxic mold creeping through the walls, insulation, and very foundation the house stood on. The cracks were revealed as half of the house was sinking deeper into the ground and the other half was not. The foundation was weak and the house couldn’t stand. That which the house was hiding was bringing it into the ground. This house could not be lived in any longer; the secrets it held deep within were detrimental to the health of its residents.

Just because something is hidden deep within us does not mean it fails to effect who we are. Just because something is unseen on the surface does not mean it is not aiding in what can be seen. It is just as much a part of us as what we choose to share freely.

Have you ever told yourself a lie because it was easier than facing the truth? You knew that facing the truth would bring an uncontrollable amount of pain and hurt from the depths of your being. So in knowing this, you just refused to acknowledge what stared you in the face. The more you ignored its mere existence in your life, the easier it was to believe it never happened. The easier it was to bury it in the corners and cracks of your heart that are predominately for hiding what we wish to never face. The corners and cracks of our heart hide memories so well our subconscious mind can forget they exist.

But it does not disappear. Sooner or later what we tried to hide it with fails to succeed in hiding it any longer and the black creeps through the ceiling until it is bulging above us. Staring at us in all its horror is what we wished could have remained hidden: our hurt, our doubts, our mistakes, our unbelief, our loneliness, and our questions – just sitting before us beckoning for us to admit to its existence. We do not want to stare it in the face because the weight is too hard for us to bear, it is too painful. So we try again to bury it and we move on.

But, one day it will happen again. It will always happen again.

It is in those corners and cracks which we try to hide the disappointments in our life that the enemy corners us into bondage. We believe that those corners and cracks are hiding that hurt and pain so we do not have to be forced to face it head on. But what we fail to see is that the enemy has us backed into that corner as well, he has us cornered with the weight of what we tried so hard to bury. We are in bondage to that which we believe has been much easier to hide than to confront.

But that, my friends, is a lie.

It is never easy to run. It is never easy to hide. Running and hiding never ends, running and hiding holds you bondage. As we are cornered by the enemy, the weight of what we have hidden pulling us back, and the power of the enemy’s lies barricading us in we are unable to experience the vastness of the freedom on the other side.

But there’s hope.

There is hope in that moment that you decide you are done. That moment where you turn to that corner and you scream at the top of your lungs and say, “You have no power over me! I refuse to leave you hidden in the cracks and corners of my life, I am done!” It is in that moment that you, my friend, have faced that hurt head on. Even if you are afraid, even if you cry, even if you think you are going to be sick, even if you know it is going to hurt – you face it, and when you do, you are no longer in bondage. The enemy is no longer barricading you. You, my friend, you are free.

You are free.

Can you taste that? The vastness and greatness of what freedom in Christ is all about, can you feel that? My friend, it is for you.

Freedom is for you.