Do you ever feel like a prisoner in your own body? Are you a prisoner to your illness, to pain, to hopelessness, to displacement, to fatigue, to financial burdens, to the difficult task of daily life with chronic illness? If you quickly said no…let’s think again. Let me rephrase, at times do you feel imprisoned by chronic illness or chronic pain? I do. There are days where I have felt claustrophobic in my own body…now how do you resolve that problem? You can’t just slip out of your skeleton for a while and try on a new one. At those times I just want a way out of the pain and fatigue; I want to run away from myself. But I can’t…so I know I have to find another way to deal with the claustrophobia-the imprisonment in my own body that doesn't work like I want it to. The only solution I can find is my Lord, Jesus…only he can set me free from a body that at times feels like a prison and not a blessing. I’m not talking about death, that will come in its time, but until then, how do I live…I mean REALLY LIVE! I’m not o.k. with living a boring, sick, self-centered life. I want to live. I want to be alive. What does that mean for you? I can share what that means for me.
As a counselor, I can say that one of our favorite tools is to teach people how to reframe their circumstances, to find a better way to view their situation that makes it manageable, or even fruitful. Right now it is 4:40 in the a.m. and I am not up because I want to be. It is just another night of insomnia, one battle I struggle with on this journey. But I finally got out of bed and decided to open my Bible and see what the Lord wanted to say to me, and maybe even you. I got a reframe, not from an earthly counselor, but from the counselor of counselors, our Lord Jesus himself. It came via the prophetic words of Zechariah. Are you ready for it?
Zechariah 9:12 says “Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce I will restore twice as much to you.” (NIV)
Prisoners of hope? I had to pause there. What does that mean anyway? Then I thought of how I feel imprisoned by my body at times and shazzam (!) there was a reframe. I am a very hope filled person generally, but when I feel trapped in my broken body and tough circumstances I sink into hopeless pretty quickly. Instead, now I can turn my thoughts to my fortress (my Lord) and become a prisoner of hope in Him and his promise that he will return to me twice as much (I won't even attempt to guess what that may mean).
I love that phrase…”you prisoners of hope,” it just stopped me. It was so unexpected. But as I ponder it more and more, I realize I am a prisoner of hope. In Zechariah 10, the prophet reminds us to pray to the Lord for our needs because he is our creator and knows us intimately. We can pray for healing, financial burdens to be lifted, more energy, a day without pain, but most of all we can ask that he make his presence real to us, so that if we are a prisoner to something, at least we are imprisoned by Hope in Him! Prisoner of hope? You bet, sign me up!
