“She meant well” is what I realize looking back on that memory – on that nine-year old girl that set a caged hamster free and how she realized the vulnerable animal had no say, no freedom, and no choice in its life. It lived confined to a small space, and an even smaller mind. The tan and white fur was what had attracted her to choose this particular little creature as a pet. So acting out of love and concern, she opened the cage door, reached in her hand and lifted the fluffy animal. In good intention she walked downstairs, hamster in hand, through the kitchen, and out the back door to the yard. She thought she had been selfish for keeping it imprisoned. So she gently set it down, said a goodbye and walked away.
The nine-year old meant well, but, meaning well and doing well seem to often have very different outcomes.
Looking back on that memory there are so many things this grown-up woman realizes that the nine-year old didn’t. The nine-year old meant well, but meaning well and doing well seem to often have very different outcomes. The hamster had learned to depend, sit still, and receive food and water, completely at the mercy of its master. Its God given defenses were overcome by a cage and it didn’t know how to survive outside of it. Freedom was a whole new world. As the sun went down, the temperature dropped, the little tan and white creature sat still in the grass and froze to death not more than a few feet from where it had been “freed” the day before.
When you’ve lived a life in bondage, confined in choices, hedged in by fear, manipulation, abuse, neglect – living free seems so foreign.
I think being in Christ and born again are much the same thing for so many. I can empathize with the Israelites when I hear of their complaints in the wilderness after being freed from their bondage in Egypt. When you’ve lived a life in bondage, confined in choices, hedged in by fear, manipulation, abuse, neglect – living free seems so foreign. It’s like being transferred from one land with its specific language to a completely foreign place. In God’s kingdom, the language of love is what matters to the one transferred to His kingdom, and the ability to interpret His language and to be moved by and live within it. Otherwise, we are similar to that hamster, let loose into a land of freedom, yet sitting still and freezing to death in a mindset of dependence and control, not love. God is not a nine-year old girl. His ways are guided by more than good intentions. He doesn’t just mean well, He does well. He is good and all He does is good. The hand of God is able to reach in the “cage” of each man, woman, and child’s soul to set him in a place of freedom. Most importantly, He is able and willing to breathe life into the spirit of His creation. He says “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I give to your forefathers, so you will be my people and I will be your God” Ezekiel 36:26-28. So, in this uncharted territory, where I can choose to sit still and freeze in fear rather than learn to live in freedom, I’m open to receive this new heart of flesh, like the one I imagine God to describe as one of humility, grace, understanding, compassion, and boundless opportunity in Him. It’s a heart able to discern and lead others to that same freedom by walking intentionally in the light. A heart that is open to be examined, willing to be transparent, eager to confess and repent. A heart that keeps His Word in it like a priceless treasure trove of never ending jewels ready to be accessed any time, at will, by faith in the Son of God.
This is where the noise on the outside is removed in order to hear and remove the noise on the inside.
So I am placed here in a field of green grass by God’s hand from the cage I’d come to know. This is a pasture safe from harm, where there’s the cleanest of water, and memories of the oppressor, like old clothes of shame and carnality, are changed into His likeness. It’s where I move when He says “move” and rest when He says “rest”, yet not sit still in fear. For His “perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18) and He “…upholds me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12).