Yesterday I wrote about PANIC ROOMS that people hide in to get away from what they perceive as danger. Today I am going in the opposite direction. I want to address ESCAPE ROOMS that people try to get out of.
Most of us have heard of the ESCAPE ROOM craze that has been trotting across the globe for the past 10 or 15 years. The set-up is simple. A group of people is locked in a room. The only way to win freedom is to find clues and solve puzzles by relying on their own power and guile to ESCAPE. Nobody is available to rescue them.
There are times in life when we’re confined in the equivalent of an ESCAPE ROOM full of tests, trials, and travails.
The siren sounds. The red flag of danger quickly runs up our flagpole. The radar screen has enough blips to light the Rockefeller Christmas tree. You know: Divorce papers. 401k explosions. Employment pink slips. Medical diagnoses. Relationship clashes. Addictions. And more.
That’s the ESCAPE ROOM of life.
We quickly scramble and search for a WAY OUT. It does not take long before we start telling ourselves “there MUST be a trap door or tunnel exit here somewhere.”
But unlike the escape room game, there is no escape hatch to be found on our own when circumstances lock us in a room of pain. There is no hidden “way out.”
To escape we must stop trying to make it happen on our own–that’s GOD’S JOB. We need to call on Jesus and accept that GETTING OUT of our confinement is not the goal. The goal is to GET THROUGH it.
Why? Because a quick release to “get us out” of our pain misses a glorious opportunity for God to grow our faith.
That’s why he allows us to be confined periodically in life’s “room of trials and persecution.” He wants us to build spiritual muscles that make us stronger for the next time we feel the walls of life start squeezing in on us.
I ask God to remind me always that escaping life’s pain is not the goal. To help me understand that the goal is to call on him and rely on him to get through the pain in order to grow my faith so he can use me to help others and build his Kingdom.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Do you try to ESCAPE when life starts squeezing in on you from all sides or do you call on God to get you THROUGH IT?
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
