The captives are set free

When I was living in Metairie, I was vaguely aware that one of my neighbors down the street raised small dogs, mostly in his garage.  I rarely saw the people and saw the garage open only once---when I saw empty cages stacked on top of one another, maybe about 20 altogether.  One day, one of the little dogs escaped and came down the street toward my house.  But he could not walk in a straight line; he moved down the street only by continually walking in small circles, as though he were still in a small cage.  Only gradually was he able to actually move "forward" in my direction.

These dogs evidentally were allowed out of their cages only once a day, when they were fed.  The rest of the time, if they moved at all, they had to circle their cages.  My heart broke when I realized what had been going on just down the street from me, and I wondered if I should call the Humane Society.  I didn't, but to this day regret that I did not.  I didn't want to cause problems for my neighbors---a very short-sighted approach, I now think.

The memory of that little dog walking in circles to me is now a graphic picture of what trauma does to us as children, or maybe even as adults.  It cripples our freedom to grow and develop as we continually circle back to the traumatic events even while trying to walk forward in our lives.  The little dog's brain had patterned itself to walking in a cage to the extent that even out of his cage, "walking" still meant walking in circles.  In the same way, circus elephants are trained to remain "chained" to a stake in the ground so that even after the chains are removed, the elephants believe they are still tethered to the stake and will not move away on their own.

Jesus said that if someone were to give scandal to a little one, it would be better for that person to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.  I am beginning to see why---damaging a little one is permanent "brain damage;" something our society has only recently begun to understand and react to.  No amount of punishment for the offender will undo the damage he/she has caused to a child.

To some extent, all of us have been damaged and to some extent, all of us "walk in circles," trying to move forward past trauma.  The "release of captives" that Jesus proclaimed as part of His ministry had less to do with those in prison than with those of us permanently damaged and "captive" to sin, whether the sin of others or of ourselves.  He is able to set free those who walk in darkness not by proclaiming or teaching the Great Tao/ the Universal Law, but by entering into those held captive and changing them from within.  That is the great message of the Resurrection--that our "old man" has died, been buried, and that we have been "born again" as new creatures in Christ Jesus.  It is His energy that works so powerfully in us as we continue to yield to Him and allow Him to work out our salvation in us.

"Behold, says the Lord God of hosts, "I am doing a new thing; do you not perceive it?" (Is. 43:19)

What does it mean to "be saved," except that we, by the power of Jesus' great energy in us, are continually set free from the damages of our and other's sin?  In the Book of Genesis, Joseph tells the brothers who threw him down a well and sold him into slavery:  What you intended for my harm, God turned to my good.

Only God is able to save us in this way; we are no more able to save ourselves than the little dog was able himself to undo the damage done to his brain.  God told Jonah that the Ninevah was a city of "more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who [could] not tell their right hand from their left," and that He was concerned about them.  I think that description might apply not only to the inhabitants of Ninevah, some of the most cruel people on earth, but to the whole world. 

No wonder salvation is such good news!