Articles
Are you a prisoner?
Imagine FIVE years locked up alone in a room! Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar tells the
story of Brigadier General Robinson Riser’s confinement as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
He was held captive for over seven years. Five of those years were in solitary confinement. Little
food. Cold. Heat.
Riser suffered many things, but perhaps the worst was the isolation. Five years with no
conversation. No communication from home or friends. Silence. Five years staring at the same
walls. At times, he stuffed his underwear in his mouth to deprive his captors the satisfaction of
hearing him scream.
One day, Riser made a simple, sanity-saving discovery. He lay down on the floor of his
tiny cell and discovered a very small crack in the cinder block wall. By pressing his eye close to
the crack, he could see outside.
A leaf! He could see a leaf on the ground outside his cell! Not much to get excited about,
you might say. But for a man locked inside for 5 years, it was a ray of hope – a glimpse of life
beyond his tiny four walls. And someday, maybe someday soon, he could imagine being free
again to step outside his prison to where there were leaves and sunshine.
This world is often characterized by disappointment, disease, and death. But the worst
condition is separation – separation from God. Our sin is what separates us from Him (Isaiah
59:1-2) and creates a " wall" between man and God.
But God loves us so much that He gave His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins
(John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). He paid the price for our redemption so that we can be set free
from the bondage of sin (Ephesians 1:7) and the "wall" between man and God is destroyed.
Freedom! It is there just waiting for us. Will you remain a prisoner?
~B. Tolbert
via Keith Wishum,"A Crack in the Wall"
Williams Road church of Christ, Americus, GA
