Un-Stuck

The other day my son Jonah was playing this new game on the stairs. I was in the kitchen and he went running into the other room and then I heard him yelling, “help help help, Daddy I’m stuck, I’m stuck, help me I’m stuck.” So I went running into the living room anxious to discover what sort object my son had wedged himself into. He was sitting on the steps with his legs lodged in between the bars on our railing. And he was yelling, “help me I’m stuck.” So I ran over to him, you know, to un-stick him from his unfortunate situation, only to notice that he was not really stuck at all. He had at least a two inch clearance on either side of his tiny legs, but he was holding on tightly to the rails, yelling “I’m stuck.” Realizing this is was a game I said, “alright I’ll get you out,” and I grabbed him and pulled him out, but as soon as I did he said, “no, no, no and started to cry and put his legs back in the rails. At which point he looked up at me and yelled, “help Daddy I’m stuck, I’m stuck!” I scratched my head for a second a bit perplexed, and then tried to pull him out again, but once again he became irate, fussed at me for trying to help him, and put his legs back in between the rails. He regained his composure, looked up at me and once again yelled for help. I didn’t know what to do, because clearly he was not really stuck, and he didn’t really want helped out, clearly he wanted to be stuck and to yell for help. And that is exactly how I think it is for a lot of us! We have these areas in our lives, these pitfalls that we put ourselves into and even though we say we want help. Even though we cry out like Jonah that we are stuck and don’t want to live this way. We say we don’t want to be insecure, or angry, or bitter, or lustful, or addicted, but when real freedom is offered to us we push it away. We fuss and complain and make up excuses, because honestly being stuck feels comfortable. You can revel in self pity when you’re stuck, but when you are set free then there is a real responsibility, to live free. And for a lot of us we just want forgiveness, not freedom. But the love of Jesus doesn’t stop at forgiveness; he said whoever the Son sets free is really free. He doesn’t want to just comfort us in our stuck state of living, he wants to free us; really free us. But is that what you really want? If you really want to be free, to be un-stuck, you have a good and loving Father who is right there wanting to help, promising to help; he will pull you out!