Paul to the Galatians.
How distressing it is when you encounter someone who is choosing, of their own volition, to take steps that results in them becoming so much less then they should be - to cripple themselves in a fashion that holds them back from, yes, engaging with life in a way which may require a level of risk and challenge, which could launch them into a much richer place of truth and health than they had previously known.
This world is saturated with ideologies and cull de sac approaches that so readily impression us . Paul himself (the writer of the verse above) had once been so caged by his religious convictions. As a consequence, he judged his view to be superior (the best that could be held), and this superiority spurred him to shed blood, justified by his misplaced convictions concerning truth. Only a full-scale divine intervention broke his total bondage to such bleak pride.
Sometimes, of course, the chords which grip us just as tightly appear far more secular and mundane, but are just as deadly in their consequences. A young man, for example, is given an opportunity to employ his abilities in a role so he can begin to extend his skills. He chooses instead to rest back, not applying himself to the opportunity. What will those who have provided such an opening make of this? How long will it be before such an attitude results in loosing all that has been gained. Such a fool finds themselves quickly loosing what they had been provided as a means to so much more.
Of course, the road block can be so often seem to be something even more necessary to us than mere laxity - we might even view it as something truly benevolent.
Jesus met those for whom their wealth, or family, or some other "imperative" held them back from taking the necessary steps that were key to obtaining life which would allow them to become genuinely rich. When our presumed "obligations" enable nothing but our stumbling into a prison of missing the divine intention for our days here, then we truly become lost. The cares of now are no more than deadly traps when they remove our gaze from what is truly to be gained - a liberty which makes all that was purposed and intended by our Maker (aiding something spread out before us to be obtained) - whatever troubles must be faced to truly inhabit such wealth.
The Apostles were wealthier in chains in prison than the materially richest man who has ever lived, because they owned a freedom that will never cease and cannot be taken away. Will that same anchor hold us in the days that are to come?
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