One of my closest friends is an adventurer at heart. Though she is shy and is on the quiet side, she is always up for a challenge to stimulate the senses. One of her favorite activities with friends has been “the escape room” experience. This is a relatively new leisure outing where you get locked in a room(hopefully with folks you like), read clues, and try to find the exit to escape. This makes me shake my head in wonder because my friend is claustrophobic. She avoids elevators and never wants to be in a small closed space, yet loves this escape room activity. I have concluded that it must challenge her to first face her fear, and second, solve the puzzle. She is pretty competitive at heart, so, no kidding, she loves this adventure!
Perhaps my friend’s idea of a challenge isn’t for you. But whether we voluntarily pursue it in leisure, traps, and escape plans are integrated into our lives in so many ways. We are often unaware of how often we employ this problem-solving strategy. On an average day, we try to avoid being trapped by traffic, too talkative neighbors or coworkers, getting trapped into a television movie that we know we don’t have the time to invest in. And who has not screened their calls to avoid sales traps by telemarketers and, yes, medicare!! Then there are the more serious entanglements like avoiding family tension and arguments, conflict in other relationships, losing our tempers, spending funds that we know we shouldn’t. Grievous situations like the death of loved ones, illness, and a big trap we all are trying to find a way out of is fear of the future. Life is full of “escape room” situations that we need to find the exit from.
Psalm 91:3 reminds us that we serve a God who rescues us from traps. In the KJV, it is phrased “as the fowler’s snare.” This gives a word picture of a trap that has been purposely set to capture. Most of us folks inside the faith would prefer the pollyanna view of a believer’s life and avoid thoughts that the enemy is trying to sabotage or trap us. But it is possible through the power of God’s word and His spirit to face the traps that this life holds without dwelling in fear. Remember, we are to dwell with the Most High, whose power triumphs overall. The Psalmist in verse 3 turns now to be more specific about the blessings God offers to those who choose to live in the shadow of the Almighty.
What a comfort to know God has the plan and the power for any “escape room” I could get locked into. I can’t help but think of Jesus’ words in John 10:7 “I am the door”… Jesus came to set us free from the trap of death. Doesn’t it make sense if He would go to such lengths to rescue us from this snare that surely Christ has the power to help us out of any other situation we might find ourselves trapped in? In my friend’s experience in the escape room, she and her friends have to search for clues and solve the puzzle to escape. This is true in life, God has given us His word as the ultimate guide, and man does it contain a lot of what seems to be very mysterious clues at times. However, we have the Holy Spirit with us IN every trap or snare we fall into. Even the ones we voluntarily surrender to. And the spirit is our guide! He can make the complex understandable. He can bring light to dark, difficult clues when we are blinded by desperation and panic. But, it is vital to remember that the escape does not rest on our abilities to solve the puzzle and find the escape. God has promised that even in temptation, which by the way, is the trap common to all folks and was set way back in the garden for Adam and Eve, that He will provide a way of escape. The scriptures are full of God’s promises to rescue, to deliver, to save. In Daniel 3, the three Hebrew boys in the furnace were assured that God could save them. They came out, after a big burn, not even smelling like smoke or ash!! Amazing!! The Psalms are full of David’s praises for all the deliverance he experienced at the loving hand of God.
As I write this, the traps of today are before me. Some I can plainly see, like perseverating on the new case count of the virus and will we have to go back to isolation and the Zorro way of life behind a mask. Will I accomplish everything I think I need to do? How about the trap of the morning scale? Did I gain or lose over the weekend? We all laugh, but sometimes it’s the little things that ensnare us and rob our joy. Then, there are other traps that I cannot see. Like being too busy to stop and spend time with God that will not help prepare me to face other entrapments like doubting or fear short temperedness or temptation. Discontentment is a colossal trap that the media helps bait. How much HGTV can I watch before I begin to feel trapped in a house that is not up to fashionable standards? Or how many Facebook posts can I view about the seemingly wonderful life others are living that capture me into thinking I am missing out. Deeper still is the pit I can fall into that has me believing God has let me down or failed me by not providing, not healing. Not avenging my cause and hurts hasn’t blessed me as He has others. etc. Or how many of us are caught in the trap of “churchiness” and legalism and miss the freedom of a relationship with Christ and the true fellowship with others of like mind and faith that is only possible through HIm?
How reassuring to be reminded and rest on the promise that Surely, God will save me from the snare. The Psalmist does not qualify which traps, it simply states God will save me. What courage we can lay hold of as we make our way through life, knowing God already has the plan and the ability to release us from the clutches of anything that would hinder us and restrain us from the wonderful secrets and glorious future He has planned for us. Not just in heaven, but here in the daily.
Lord, thank you that you just don’t know the escape plan; you are the escape. You are the door, and you are my way into your blessings and the exit out of the choices that are laid before me that will take me away from your protection and purpose for me. Help me to be wise to avoid the traps of fear, want, and worry and to recognize that the path you lead me through is steep; it is safe. Shield me from the enemy who desires to capture my attention, talents, and time with traps of promised success, instant gratification, and temporary pleasures that won’t last. Lord, save me from the snare of self. Thank you that there is no place I can get stuck that you cannot pull me out of, for you are the God who rescues!
Join the 5 o’clock worker in the vineyard next time when the lights go out and “Things Go Bump In The Night.”
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