The angry and resentful young man sat sullenly on the edge of his narrow cot in the cell. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, body motionless but with his brain racing in high gear. Ben’s pulse rate and stress level had shot through the roof when he heard the cell door clang shut, and they showed no signs of leveling off any time soon.

He was a minor, so he knew his parents would be receiving a phone call, if they hadn’t already. A call that they had experienced many times before. A call they dreaded receiving again.

What he didn’t know? The police chief of that small town had a plan in mind.

Just like before, Ben had been placed in a holding cell. But this time, the chief specifically told the jailer to leave the cell door unlocked - “Clang it shut, but leave it unlocked and then leave.” He was going to have young Ben sitting in dejection and anger for a few hours in what was supposedly a tiny hopeless locked cell. Then he intended to stand in front of that cell, sharply call out Ben’s name to make certain that the kid looked up, and then slowly and deliberately swing the unlocked door wide open.

Sitting on the cot near Ben, his ensuing lecture would go something along these lines.

“Yep, just as you saw, all this time it was unlocked. You could have walked out any time you wanted. You just didn’t know it, so you sat there, sulking, cussing and blaming the police and everyone you could think of who got you into this place. And all the while, you could have opened the door and gone free.

Ben, I deliberately instructed that they leave your cell door locked, so you just might understand what I am now gonna try to tell you.

Son, you are doing this to yourself, keeping yourself in this hellhole of a life.

But if you’ll want it, there is a way out your rotten way of living. That cell door on your life ain’t permanently locked. All you gotta do is decide you want out. The judge, the cops, your mom and dad, they all want it for you. But nobody can force you to walk out of that unlocked cell that you call Your Life.” Then he walked out.

That story of a wasted, supposedly trapped, teenage life perfectly describes every person living.

We do things wrong in life. We know when we die we will have to pay a heavy penalty for what we’ve done. The Heavenly Judge offers us an unlocked door, if we will just take Him up on His offer. But just like the teen and the police chief, God’s offer is valid only if we quit insisting that we can live our life exactly as we choose.

Your choice. Walk out of an open door that only looks locked, or live in your prison cell forever.

---

Podcasts are available at Coffeetimecolumn. com. Send any responses to andybowman839@gmail.com.