But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
“Mama, it’s dark. I’m scared.”
“Hush Baby girl, we got to stay down here where Master can’t find us.”
Maroons, they were called, runaway slaves who hid in the swamps during the U.S. Civil War. Pattin and his wife were examples. They bore fifteen children inside a cave they dug from the earth. Imagine those poor kids living in constant fear, believing their cave was the world.
We are born into an earthly system that’s as unnatural as Pattin’s cave. God created us to live free in the sunshine of his love, but our secular machine hides us from the fullness of life. We grow up slaves to ease and acceptance. To pander after the world’s offerings, and call it freedom, is a delusion greater then the Pattin children believed.
When I was a boy, Jesus rescued me out of the cave. I lived free above ground, delivered from the counterfeit life, for a while. But in my teen years, my cave-dulled senses couldn’t handle the radiance of unlimited love. I crawled back into the pit.
Now, I behave like a secret caveman. On church days I dance in the sweet air of liberation. By Monday, I sneak back down the tunnel into slavery. Pattin’s cave in the swamp offered more freedom than this.
I need to get my identity right. I am not a slave, cowering every time worldly temptation cracks its whip. I belong to a royal priesthood, chosen for freedom, and adopted into the holy nation of Almighty God. A prince of the light, that’s who I truly am.
Satan says I’m a spiritual maroon, while Jesus dubs me emancipated. They can’t both be right. It’s time to heed the voice I choose to hear, and live outside the cave.
Prayer: Savior, thank you for calling me into your marvelous light.