The Great Escape

The year was 1912.

In a bid to perform the greatest escape act the world had ever seen, Harry Houdini was lowered upside-down in giant steel and glass cabinet, filled with water to overflowing and locked from the outside - forced to hold his breath for more than three minutes as he desperately attempted to escape. He did in-fact escape and would successfully perform this daring feat for the duration of his career.

Houdini would later explain some of his illusions: how he would expand his chest, dislocate his shoulders, and swallow keys in order to make his escape acts look stunningly believable. And nearly a century later, while other performers like David Copperfield, Chris Angel, and Lance Burton have made notable careers as escape artists, Houdini's name is still synonymous with unbelievable acts of illusion.

Amazing how we marvel at an illusionist's acts of escape without even noticing that many of us are as equally talented, if not even more than the very best of the great escape artists.

You see, our acts of illusion are those that put up a facade over our motives, over our fears, over our hearts. Some of us dazzle spectators like family, friends, and co-workers with the illusion that our lives are just fine, the television will teach the kids what they need to learn about life, the long work hours are no problem, the marriage will heal itself, the drinking is no big deal, the artery clogging fast food will never catch up with me, the drug use is only for a season, the out of control overspending will be followed by another big financial breakthrough.

Others perform the great escape of reality, relinquishing responsibility of their lives to circumstances and consequences. "I can't love because I wasn't loved...I'm rough because I had it rough...I can't get ahead because others keep me down...I don't show my wife love because she doesn't show me respect...my dead end job drives me to drink...life ends at death so what does it really matter anyway...I'd make more of an effort with my kids if I had more time...I can't get a hold of this chaotic life because I don't have what it takes...what is the use in committing to a loving God that simply won't show himself.

For so many of us, the show we put on day after day rivals that of the very greatest performers and is often the result of the questions left on the table - the reasons that hold us back from making a real commitment to marriage, to family, to fellowship, to career, to stewardship, to forgiveness, to deliverance, to sacrifice, to fulfillment, to love, to praise, to obedience, to faith, to peace, to healing, to life itself. The bottom line is that in this grand illusion, we need not look any further than in the mirror to see the ones we are truly fooling. Fate, it seems, has its own sense of irony, as the great escape only leads us to a place of bondage, eternal prisoners of our own illusion.

But it doesn't have to end there. It's okay to drop the front, be honest with ourselves (and others) and admit that we live in an tough world, oftentimes balancing itself (as one writer puts it) on the razor's edge of uncertainty.

It's okay to stop the act and admit to our families that we aren't equipped to solve all the problems, that "I don't know" is sometimes the healthiest answer; It's okay to escape the excuses and agree that its time to let go of past hurts, residual pain and move into a position of greater spiritual maturity; It's okay to do a curtain call, end the magic show and fully commit to God even though doubts are still a real part of daily life. It's okay to finally let the guard down, take a deep breath and have faith that no matter the trials, no matter the challenges, no matter the circumstances - there is authentic contentment found in going in empty handed and abiding in the only one worthy of surrender.

I submit to you that it is time to show the world the real great escape - the escape from slave to free, from fallen to risen, from from dead to alive...

Nate


"For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You." - Psalm 86:5