Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Chinese Handcuffs


A few weeks ago, my family and I attended a birthday party. When we left, the kids were given generous goody-bags filled with all kinds of toys. There was one toy that the kids were most intrigued by, the Chinese Handcuffs (aka Chinese Finger Trap). The longer they studied the toy, the less they understood it. If you have kids you know that studying a toy is not sufficient, eventually they had to put their fingers in it. The toy suddenly became a source of frustrations. They couldn't understand why, if they wanted to pull their fingers out, would they push them in?

As I watched my children, I realized life is the same way sometimes. We find our selves doing what we can to "take control" of our lives, and end up no better off than my children in the finger trap - frustrated, confused, and quickly reaching their limits. We may even laugh at the folly of others and then fall into the same trap.

Yet, Jesus offers us a solution - lose your life for Him, and you will truly find it. And like my kids, I don't think we can really believe this until we actually do it and see that it works. So... what's stopping you?