When I was a younger man I spent some time in jail. One of the not so obvious lessons that I learned from this period of my life is that much of what we think of as happiness is a bit relative. I spent my time in jail reading and sleeping a lot. I would watch TV and occasionally go to the gym for volleyball. I am not trying to be cavalier; loss of freedom is not fun, but I found that over time I adjusted. Things that I wouldn't have thought twice about on the outside began to bring some level of happiness under those circumstances. I would spend my days looking forward to my next meal (as bad as they were) or to commissary day when I could buy a bag of chips. Over time I settled into a routine and can actually say that I had some level of contentment.
The contentment that I found in jail was; however, very fragile. It could be shattered by the simplest of things, namely by pondering what I was missing on the outside. I learned, over time, not to think about what I would be doing if I had my freedom. I learned to focus on what was right in front of me and to never think about what might be. It is difficult to find joy in a jail house meal when you’re reminded that you could be eating steak just on the other side of the wall. Pondering my freedom brought pain, because freedom was not possible.
I see something in this story about the human condition. Is it possible that we have found normalcy in an unnatural place? I find myself eerily able to walk through life just focusing on the next thing. Where will I vacation next summer? Where will the kids go to college? How will I pay for it? What will we have for dinner tonight? These are the things that I focus on, and all the while there is suffering all around. I see news articles about wars and murders and famines and atrocities of all kinds. I see loved ones sick and dying. I see myself slowing fading away as the years go by. Death is the warden of this world and no one has ever escaped. Yet in the middle of all of that I am able to find comfort in my Big Mac, in my next jail house meal as it were. But perhaps this is the best we can do. After all, pondering freedom only brings pain when it is impossible. But what if it is possible?
What if in the middle of our slow march to the gas chamber, as we focus on our next step never allowing our eyes to drift up to look at the smoking chimneys ahead, something happened. What if a man grabbed us by the shoulders and shook us and said “there’s more to this life than the dirt you’re staring at”? What if he shook us and said “you don’t have to settle for the walls of this prison”?
In the middle of this prison of a world a man came and claimed to have the ability to set us free. He claimed to be able to free us from sickness and from poverty and from death and ultimately from our own sins. Others have claimed these kinds of things as well, but this man was different. He healed the sick and provided for the poor and raised the dead and proclaimed forgiveness of sins. He claimed that these miraculous works were simply a down payment on what he would ultimately do for this whole world. He came with power, but he died like a prisoner. Then after 3 days he was raised from the dead, showing that he was indeed able to deliver us from our warden; death. He bids us to not settle for this broken world and our broken selves. He is offering us hope, with power to back it up. He is offering us freedom. Call out to him, call out to Jesus. Don’t get comfortable in Auschwitz.
Getting Comfortable in Auschwitz