What's in Your Something Box?

I love airports. I really do. And I was able to spend quite a bit of time in them last week, as I was blessed to travel back east to visit friends. I get such a kick out of people in airports. They look so . . . Stressed. As I sat eating lunch, there was a woman with a fussy newborn to my left, and an old guy who looks like he’s had a vacation-gone-wrong on my right. Everyone, reguardless of who they are, seem to have problems with one thing or the other - It seemed like they were stuck.

Stuck in a box of .... something.

At my connecting flight in Houston, I had a VERY long layover. Desperately attempting to pass the time, I waddled quite naturally into a bookstore nearest my gate. I saw books on love, books on hate . . . books on yoga, books on dieting. Books on, "how to find your life calling" and "how to find the NEW you!" It seemed like everywhere I turned, were books that told people how to get out of their something box. Something being, their looks, their weight . . . . Their obnoxious boyfriends, their jealous girlfriends, their bad childhood, their rebellious children, their defective marriages. These boxes of somethings had kept these people chained to a certain problem in their life, and for some reason, they can't get out. They'll go to self-help books to try to find answers . . . But the reality is,

They're trapped.

In a box.

It's been sealed, and there's no way out.

They are literally bondservants to Satan. Jesus said in John 8:34: "Everyone who sins IS a slave to sin." They can wiggle and squirm, and try to do it themselves, but the reality is that they're stuck. Helpless to conquer their something.

It is a dire situation. Sin is not a small matter. Often times we downsize it, so that we feel better about ourselves. Oh, sin. It's just human nature, right? It doesn't seem like such a big deal. Nobody's perfect. God accepts us as we are. Yes?

No.

Sin. A three letter word.

The most powerful force existing outside of the God's love.

Really think about that for a minute.

It is deadly, and draws people in with the most deceitful and cunning tactics. It is something to be terribly feared, because it will ensnare us in a box, faster than we think - and there's absolutely no hope of us saving ourselves.

Someone else has to be our hero, our savior, our liberator.

"But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been SET FREE from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." ~Romans 6:17-18

The freedom found in Christ enables us to reject sin, and embrace righteousness. Once He becomes Lord of our life, our something disappears.

We're free in His grace. :) Thank goodness for His love.

~Lauren Lee

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have becomes slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."