FEELING TRAPPED?

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchia, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes.  And there was no water in the cistern, only mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire (Jeremiah 38:6).

I have been reading through Jeremiah.  For some unknown reason, as I read this verse, I thought about the clients who have spoken of feeling trapped in their marriages, jobs and even their lives.  It's funny how a single verse can trigger such thoughts--humm.

Sometimes being trapped is not one's own fault.  Being trapped can come through simply being faithful, as Jeremiah was a faithful prophet for God.  In those situations, one can, at the very least, have a clear conscience about the situation; it goes a long way toward helping one sleep at night!  Of course, if it is true that one is trapped because he/she was being faithful to God's word, then God will also make a way out; Jeremiah was pulled from the cistern.

Most of the time, feeling trapped and/or being trapped is of our own doing; we make the prisons that imprison us.  I am not blaming here because we all make mistakes and errors in judgement that are not intentional, but, nevertheless, form the bars of our prison cells. It should go without saying that  intentional sins have the same result.

Feeling trapped is hopeless anxiety.  It is the feeling that a situation will never change and there is nothing I can do about it; I have no resources or power to bring about change.  If one believes in the God of the Bible, he/she already has resources to deal with a hopeless situation, even one of our own making.  God is our Redeemer, paying the price for freedom from the prisons in which we find ourselves.

So the place to begin is prayer, asking God's help to see and understand.  Sometimes the prisons in which we find ourselves are not prisons at all, it is just a matter of perspective.  Reframing a situation can make all the difference in the world.  If one can meaning in imprisonment, one can find, not only the strength to persevere, but to flourish.  It can be that those in a literal prison can be the most free people, the apostle Paul being an example, because there is meaning in the imprisonment.

The prisons of addiction are the most difficult to deal with, not only because of the dysfunctional family dynamics that form much of the prison, but because of altered body chemistry and brain dysfunction.  Even with God's help, it is a tough way out.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (II Corinthians 3:17-18).

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom