The Kidnapped - Held in Captivity

I was watching one of the last episodes of a very long Taiwanese drama series some days ago. One of the characters was kidnapped. Her hands and feet were tied very tightly with a thick rope, making it impossible for her to be free to escape. She could barely move more than an inch at a time. Needless to say, she could not feed herself, take a shower or do any basic task that a normal human person would do each day. Severely impaired. She struggled, pulled her hands in all directions in order to loosen the rope so that her hands could be free. To her, her focus was to set her hands free, which then allowed her to set her legs free and then, to find an escape route out of the hut she was held captive in. With the rope holding her hands so securely, was there any way she could ever struggle out of its grasp? 

Source

Many movies would have a similar scene and it is not uncommon to watch how the captive, in her struggle for freedom, is badly cut all over the hands and feet by the force exerted by the rope. Some even have their mouths sealed by tape or stuffed with a cloth, preventing them for shouting out for help. And there are others who are blindfolded so that they will not know where they are or who their kidnappers are. Their world darkens to a blackness, so filled with insecurities, uncertainties, fears, anxieties, and perhaps, after a certain point, helplessness. 


Can we identify ourselves with the plight of such a captive when we look at our life experiences? How often have we felt like a captive of a certain kidnapper, taking the form of a broken relationship, a loss of a loved one, a failure to meet our own expectations, a nagging pain in the back that will not go away, a stab of betrayal? In those moments of desolation, how did we try to "deal" with the experience? In our uneasiness in facing the reality of our pain, by it physical or emotional, wasn't our most immediate solution to, as quickly as we can, "get over" the pain and "move on with life", and in the midst, denying ourselves of the attention and healing our pain is crying out for? We hurry to "heal", yet never really healing completely. We hate the trials that threaten the safety of our lives and we race to push them aside. Suppression and avoidance lie to us that we have recovered. Did we not engage in a tug of war between our hands and the rope? A fight to free ourselves? And in the process, cutting our hands real deep? The more we tug and pull, the tighter the dead knot, making our release even more impossible.


Yet, "To the Jews who believed in him, Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32


What is this truth that Jesus promised? What is this freedom that He offered to the Jews, and which is now extended to us too? Why is it that only when we become disciples of Jesus that we will come to know the truth? What does it mean to be this disciple? 


Jesus came to dwell among Man to show us a living example of a life lived to its fullest, not by the world's standards but that which is benchmarked by God Himself. He taught us His ways, summed up in His commandment to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too." Matthew 22:37-40
If we make these words our home, if we let these commandments be embedded in our hearts and be the motivation of our entire life, then very naturally will all our thoughts, words and deeds be steered towards the fulfilment of these commandments. 


To love God and thereby to make His word our home, we must first and foremost journey with Him into a deep, personal and intimate relationship. We cannot, in our human weakness, love God until we ourselves have experienced His love for us. Our love then becomes a response to His love. This entails a two-way dialogue with Him in daily prayer. And as we begin this lifelong walk with our Lord Jesus, we will begin to discover the reality of who He is, a reality that is often distorted and much less pondered upon. We have, more often than not, a very one-sided and vivid notion of who Jesus is, and who we are to Him. Our self-sufficiency and self-reliance prompt us to handle every situation on our own, by our own strength. We struggle to loosen the knot by brute force. Haven't we been cutting ourselves deeper and deeper each time? Have our lives become more whole or bruised?


But we have forgotten that no matter how much power and affluence we may accrue to ourselves, we are only creatures, created by an infinitely more powerful Creator. This is the reality of who we are. This is the reality of who God is. And thus, sets the truth of where our help, our freedom, our meaning and fulfilment, our joy and peace come from. We forgot our loving and almighty God, who awaits to be called upon by us, to help us tear out the tape from our mouths, to untie the ropes that bound and restricted us, to remove the blindfold. He is always waiting, wanting to come to our rescue, yet feeling so helpless because He knows He can only act when we allow Him to. He wants us to see again. To see His truth. To see His love and His mercy, His power and glory. To see how dearly loved and cared for we are by Him. He wants our hands to grab hold of His so that He can assure us and comfort us. He wants our feet freed, to follow Him wherever He wants to bring us. He wants our lips to sing forever in the joy of having been set free. 


Jesus came to set us free. So that the many things that burden our hearts may be lifted from us. So that the pain we used to feel no longer feels like a vulnerable, opened wound. So that we no longer live in the shadow of ours and others' expectations, that we can let go of the unwillingness to forgive. That every experience in our lives is seen in the light of our intimate relationship with Him. He, the certainty in all our uncertainties, the security in all our insecurities, the promise of hope in all our despair, the comfort in all our pains, the light in all our darkness, the consolation in all our anguish, the pillar of strength in all our struggles. Have we forgotten our God, our Strength? 


What does your dialogue with God sound like? Is it building a superficial or deep and intimate relationship with Him? 
Who are your kidnappers? 


26 October 2011, Wednesday
1.37am