Parable: The Two Ways Out

2/7/2008

Picture a young girl at the train or bus station, looking around as she steps off the train or bus, luggage in hand.

She is easy “prey” for those who can spot human flesh, and delusion. From a kilometer away she can be “spotted” as a target.

She left home “to be a star” or “to find true love” or “to make friends” because she’s been “lonely.” Fill in the blank.

Within days, after the big promises, with addictive drugs slipped into food or drink, she is now a slave.

The two ways out:

She could have avoided becoming a “target” by denying her lusts in the first place. She could have denied her brain and heart the “something special she really WANTS for herself in the world” by offering it as a gift to Jesus. This wander-lust and lust and self-life are what painted a target on her back for the enemy. It is what led to her addiction, her initially unchosen dependence on satan, and her demise.

Secondly, she can escape from satan and the addictions she was secretly “enticed” and “drug into”—“by her own lusts.” The pain of coming off of the addictive drugs, and the scars of slavery are extreme.

Which of those two ways to be “free indeed” in Christ seems like the best choice for us…since as humans on this planet…“we are that girl”?