“If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” John 8:36
“Freedom” can be the most terrifying thing you will ever face. Both Harold (fictitious name) and Corrie were guilty of the crimes as charged. Both served their time in prison. And yet, when the prison doors swung open, both faced their greatest foe: Freedom!
At 45 years of age Harold was released after serving a 25-year sentence. In “freedom,” he immediately encountered everyone’s expectations of him. The family expected him to get a job instantly and get his own place—to act like he had no criminal record. The experts expected Harold to fail because their studies showed that most ex-prisoners return to crime after just a few months of “freedom.”
Harold also quickly discovered that the outside world was like a foreign country. His close relatives did not understand why he kept hiding his belongings and having flashbacks. They were not there when he had a panic attack at an unmanned commuter train station because he did not know how to buy a MetroCard from a machine—25 years ago people bought tokens from a clerk. His mind was frozen in how things used to be. Could the Jesus he met in prison help him adjust? Could that Jesus help Harold stay out of the statisticians’ predictions, and out of rage?
Years earlier in Holland, Corrie ten Boom and her family were arrested for the crime of hiding Jews in their home during the Holocaust. That Christian family was split up and exiled for persecution and death. In her early 50s, Corrie wound up where she tried to keep others from going: a concentration camp near Berlin, Germany. She was imprisoned with her elder sister, who deteriorated daily from the inhumane treatment. Miraculously, Corrie was released from that prison just days after she watched her sister die unattended to—and a week before all the women Corrie’s age were scheduled to die in a gas chamber.
Corrie was “free,” but could not forget what she, her sister, and so many others had endured. Could the Jesus who led her and her family to save Jews also save Corrie’s mind and spirit? Could that Jesus help her live without a family, and help her forgive?
Today, Harold has learned to deal with other people’s expectations of him. He still needs moral support from his counselors, who remind him of who he is in Christ. Harold has married, and his wife has learned to be a helpmate to a man who remembers too much. They doubt that their marriage will ever be normal, but they have met a Jesus who walks with them daily. Harold has a job and volunteers helping returning prisoners.
Before Corrie died in 1983, she set up a home for survivors of the Holocaust (the Jews and their oppressors), became a missionary, and traveled the world preaching about the goodness of Jesus—and forgiveness. A part of her legacy to us is the books she wrote, including The Hiding Place, which teaches us the price and beauty of “freedom.”
Whatever “freedom” situation you face or seek, remember that God did it for Harold and Corrie, and God will do it for you. As Corrie ten Boom used to say, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
God bless you!
Pastor Janice Fareed Hardy
