Picture this.
The man is put in the cell and you hear the door slam behind him. It’s dark, it’s confined and the sense of being closed in on yourself soon becomes suffocating. No one like to be locked up. Apparently.
The visual is related to someone being incarcerated. They have committed a crime and the fitting punishment is to be locked up for hours at a time, away from society.
The visual, however, is not just about those imprisoned for crimes. It’s a visual of some people’s lives who have got to the stage in their mind where they cannot cope with what’s going on in their life. Pressures affect people in different ways and people have different tolerance levels and different ways of engaging with those pressures. Some of those coping mechanisms are built to protect the self and soon that structure becomes a cell. Though the lights appear to be on to the view of others, inside the darkness is closing in and you’re locked up.
If there is no release given in time, that feeling of being locked up with the darkness caving in can lead to some really tragic consequences.
I am grateful for the efforts being made for mental health awareness and the good work that counsellors and psychotherapists do in looking to help those who are locked up in their mind. They offer a degree of release and methods to cope with the cell inside.
I am also grateful for loving and understanding communities – good friends and family that can seek to understand and respond appropriately to those episodes and incidents where someone’s cell has caved in. Love is far deeper than sentiment and the ability to respond in order whether with presence or with giving space, with the gift of comfort or with the gift of absence is a great expression of love.
Above all, however, I am grateful for someone coming into the situation not to medicate, or educate or legislate. I am glad that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus Christ to anoint Him among other things to give liberty to the captive. To free those who are locked up. Experience has taught me that really and truly on he can give that liberation.
Picture that.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 