To Be Free

The other day we were driving down the street and Dave noticed that the police were “collecting” motorcycles again (which happens on a somewhat regular basis when the police check to make sure that the drivers have their proper papers). He suggested that we go home and tell our house helper that today would be a good day to drive around town. About two months ago, we decided that we didn’t want to be responsible for him losing his motorcycle in a similar manner because we had asked him to go on an errand for us. So we offered to pay for his insurance for the year which allowed him to be able to afford to get the proper license plates and things that he needed. The next time that he came to work for us after getting his plates, he was very excited. He said he just wanted to pull over the next time he saw a policeman to show him all of his paperwork because he knew that they were all in order. He had been driving around the city for three years without having the proper paperwork and living with the threat that he might lose his motorcycle. Dave said it was just like what’s written in the Bible:

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 Jn 1:5-7

As long as our paperwork is out of order and there are problems in our life we treat God like the policeman—always looking for a back alley or hidden back street in order not to be confronted with the problems in our life. But when we come to him in confession and repentance and clean away all the stuff that we’re trying to hide we’re free to come out of the shadows and experience the fellowship that we both desire.