Imagine this. You are sitting in prison one day. All alone in solitary confinement. You have been beaten, bruised, and left to waste your time away in this tiny cell. You have tried to escape this prison anyway you can but you only find yourself being thrown deeper and deeper into this prison. Time begins to cease to exist and hope floats away with every passing breath. It has become a pointless fight. You have struggled enough and just can't take it anymore. You have now lost all drive. Complacency in your current position is all that matters to you now. In your fetal position you wish something, anything would change. Then something remarkable happens. You are shocked to see a visitor wake you up out of your current sleep that you are in. Your disheveled look presents a look of perplexion and confusion on your face as this well dressed individual begins to offer you your freedom. He begins to tell you that you can be free from this prison you are in. You can put this all behind you. You can walk out of this prison and find a new life to fully live up to your potential. All you have to do is take a journey that will test you in every way. Would you take it? Would you take that journey to gain your freedom? After all, this prison that you are in has removed you from your friends, family, and normal everyday life. It has consumed you. Freedom at this point seems near impossible to attain let alone even imagine. But yet you have the choice. Bruce Wayne had this very option placed in front of him. He had been content to live a life of crime. It had become his life and it had lead him to prison. There was no sight of freedom for him until being visited by raz a goul. Raz gave him a chance for freedom.
I've always been a batman fan for the simple reason that he is a normal human being. He has no super power, he isn't a mutant, he is just a rich everyday guy who is looking to change the world around him for the better. This one simple part of the story has always amazed me and lately has shown me some valuable lessons that I needed to apply in my own Christian walk. Bruce Wayne was in darkness. Locked in a prison with no hope for escape. This was his plight. He had no friends or family that were aware of his current location. It was a simple fact that he was alone. But yet he was offered freedom.
This is so ironically similar to our current lives. We find ourselves in the grip of sin, addiction, or even our own stupidity. It controls us, it locks us into a prison that we have no chance of escape. We are beaten down by that with every escape attempt we try to create. We find ourselves being lead deeper and deeper into this prison. Sometimes we are willingly lead away. Other times we are not so sure of it and fight it all the way. Whichever path we choose we still are slowly being lead away deeper and deeper into this prison. We need an escape. We are so deep in our sin and addiction that we can't even begin to fathom what true freedom even looks like. We search for it in any avenue we can find possible. We look for an escape and do not find it. In fact we are so sure of our own strength that we believe that we can do it on our own and everything will work out the way we need it or want it to. In the end we wind up screwing ourselves worse and worse with every decision we make. Then that opportunity for freedom cones along and we have no idea that our world Is about to explode and be completely reinvented. In the middle of our agony Christ shows up in the middle of our prison cell. He wakes us up from our sleep that we are in. He removes us from that blindness that has overtaken our vision. Everything has become clouded and jaded in our minds and we need that to change. We need to be freed from this prison that we find ourselves in. There Christ stands offering his hand in help as well as gratitude. He offers us a chance to Be released from this prison and experience our lives with him to the fullest. He offers us a chance to achieve our full potential by living our lives in a manner he would approve of. All that we are required to do is to just take a journey with him. This journey will not be easy. We are going to be tested in every way possible. But yet there the door stands open allowing us to be free from thus prison of addiction. John 8:36 simply but so powerfully states "Whom the son sets free is free indeed." It is in this verse that our bail is validated. Christ himself paid the price for our freedom. He paid the price to allow us to be free of all the addictions and sins and mindsets that hold us back from living our full potential and purpose in Christ. But it is our decision to change. We are always Fearful of change.
It is that feeling of the unknown. Sometimes freedom is a frightening thing. The founding fathers felt this same feeling when they gained their independence. They recognized the responsibility they had to their constituents. It wasn't just a new lifestyle but An entire new way of life. The same is for our own lives. Once we experience freedom on that level we sometimes are fearful. We have a responsibility to be weary of upcoming tests that are going to try to trip us up in the future. Through prayer and focus. Our attention can be diverted to better resources and uses of our time and energy. Christ called us to be victors not victims. And will we mess up. But just as Alfred said "Why do we fall master Bruce, so we can learn to pick ourselves back up." freedom in Christ is the goal.
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