The Prison

It is a shame that a man can live his life in a prison of unhappiness. A dark place that is only broken occasionally by small beams of light comming through some out of reach window. His perspective is only based on the room in which he sits. His knowledge a product of his wondering mind, of the small shreds of information that come from other outside sources. This prison becomes a torment as nothing of reality can be accepted. Anything that is not within that room can't be real. It produces contempt that is deep for anything that is outside this cold box.

We all have some area in us that produces this contempt. Something that we just will never let go of. It in one way or another never quite gets released from our mind. We may associate these things with others, thinking that they are always the cause. No matter what they say or do the demons in our mind are placed on them. This prison is tragic. It will never allow for change, it can not accept repentance. Forgivness would be out of the question. That prison just holds ones soul hostage forever.

I have this prison. I am sure in some regards you have this prison. Some friend or family member that has hurt you, something in your life that the memory just won't leave your soul. These things become the cell that we live in. These are the walls that close us in. No matter where we look we see the walls. We can't see much else only each brick the wall is built of. Each piece that becomes the whole.

How long we remain in this cell depends on us. We must see past the walls, we must know that there is other truth out there besides that which enveloped us in the cell, truth beyond our own reasoning. That truth is in the Gospel for me. I believe in forgivness and love, I believe in the freedom that Jesus offers us. I believe that we can break down the walls, if we choose to. If we choose to move past the past.

We can never change the things that were done to us. We can't go back and do it again. We can however accept who we are and who others are. We can give love when love is not accepted. We can be as Jesus asks us to be and move beyond our prison. We can let ourselves out if we just get up and open the door. Change can't be forced on others, it must start within yourself.

Lord, help me chnage. Help me move past the things of the past that hold me back. Help me to continue to forgive and to love those that can not love me. Your power, your glory, your freedom to live.