Most of us over the age of 30 have seen the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”. If you haven’t seen it, spoiler alert coming here. The movie is set in the 1940’s at the Shawshank State Penitentiary. One of the inmates in the movie, Brooks, had been there for a very long time. His life is in that prison…he has a bird that he tends to and loves, and also passes around books and serves as the jail librarian of sorts. At some point, Brooks is brought up for parole, and is allowed to go back into the community where he hasn’t lived in many years. He struggles to acclimate to his “new” life, but never learns to live free beyond the prison walls. Unfortunately, Brooks ends up taking his own life because freedom wasn’t really “freedom” to him. The prison walls were safe and comfortable although they were dirty, restrictive, and oppressive…he didn’t know how to live like he was free. He didn’t have his prison friends, his bird, or his books anymore. He was free…but he didn’t know how to live a free man.
Our family has wanted a dog for quite a while, searching but never really finding the perfect pup. Keith eventually found Miller, a two and a half year old Lab. Miller was quite the duck dog, running the courses like a champ at the kennel where Keith found him. He brought him home but he began to be quite different. He was jumpy, scared, and just not what Keith had seen at the kennel. We got the story on Miller; he was purchased as a puppy, taken home with the owner for a short time, and then brought back to the kennel to be trained as a duck dog. Unfortunately, during his training at the kennel, the owner passed away, leaving Miller to live there. The kennel owner spent time training and working with him, and all his basic needs were met. He had food, water and medical care at his disposal, but due to the number of pups the kennel owner had to care for and train daily, Miller never really bonded with a “master” during the critical puppy stage. After we brought him home, we noticed that he has no idea how to live outside the kennel walls. He had grown familiar and comfortable with living in that kennel every day. No fault of the kennel owner, he has many dogs to train and care for, and he was doing his job. Now that he is with us, he has no idea how to function in a family or farm setting. Small things that shouldn’t frighten a dog over two years old scare him to death. He is having to learn how to live outside of his “comfortable” environment that he had known for over 2 years. We think he would be thankful to be here, but it is still very unfamiliar and scary to him at times. The song by Hawk Nelson, “Live Like You’re Loved” comes to mind…”Go ahead and live like you’re loved…it’s ok to act like you’ve been set free”. I wonder how many of us don’t really live like we are loved, or we don’t live like the prison doors have been opened. God opened the doors for us when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, but do we really live like we are free? Do we ask God to open up the prison doors but then cling to the life we had inside? Do we let guilt keep us bound up in our own prisons so that we can never find true freedom? Life can be so much better outside the prison walls…or for Miller not a prison just a kennel. Having him in our home and on the farm has been such a blessing to us. The kids adore him and he loves them as well. He gets to go run in the wide open pastures, sit inside with the family watching TV, go hunting with Keith and Miles, and loves to go on rides in the back of the truck. Because of his new found freedom, and the love he feels from us, he has become loyal and protective. One afternoon while loading cattle, Miller thought the cows were hurting Keith. Determined to defend at all cost, he cleared the tailgate of our dually and got in between Keith and the cattle. The cows weren’t hurting Keith, but just the thought of it sent Miller to his defense. He feels our love, and is learning how to love us back. He’s learning how to live in the freedom of being loved. Like Miller, we need to “live like we’re loved” and “act like we have been set free” because we ARE loved and we HAVE been set free!
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
“In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free.” Psalms 118:5
“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free…” Galatians 5:1a
