Escape the Madness

Our Easter theme this year was Escape the Madness. Yes, I know, Easter was over a week ago but I've been busy...running from my madness. I haven't been quiet about what my madness is. Living in my mom's house with my own family. Well, I'm excited to say that hopefully next Saturday I will leave part of my madness behind me as we finally are getting back into our own place again. Our own space. Life is good. But it's caused me to ponder today the things people do to escape their madness. There are a few, intellegent people that just take some personal time, go off by themselves with a good book and vegitate. Or, there are some that prefer to take a day to pamper themselves and go to a spa (I don't have the $$$ to do that, would that I could, so I try to do a personal spa treatment at home...doesn't quite have the same effect.) I once read an article from a well-meaning Christian wife and mother that doubted all of this "me" time. She argued that when one gets accustomed to "me" time and then doesn't get it, it can turn into resentment against her husband and kids. So, she for one lives perfectly fine without it. Wow, make that woman a saint for she is better than God himself...for even he rested on the seventh day. He would take walks through the Garden in the cool of the day. Others turn to not so positive means of escape. For some, nicotine is their way of settling their nerves. Some overeat. (I don't think this is my problem...I'm just a foodie by nature and love to eat.) Others escape into a world of fantasy. Role playing games, computer games...sometimes they would rather sit idlely by controlling characters on a screen than face their family-their wife, their kids. Others, escape into a world of alcohol and drugs. Escape sometimes comes at a price. The feeling of Abandonment. Picture with me a loving couple. Both plagued with past heartache that they share openly with each other, but neither can "fix" the other. It could be either, but perhaps most of the time it's the wife that shoves her baggage off to the side to make room for more in her life- her husband's baggage, plus just the new role that being a wife gives, and eventually motherhood. The husband, in this case anyhow, still can't clear the hurdles of his past. He thinks he's brought them to the Lord, put them at his feet. But then, rushes back to pick them up again, afraid to go on without them. In one suitcase he's bundled the death of his best friend. In another, the abandonment by his family. In a third, the violation he's experienced at a young age. They are heavy, cumbersome. They hurt to carry them. So, he's chosen other means to escape them, make them easier to carry. Alcohol. Drugs. He's done things to forget. Yet, he can't. He has since laid down the drugs, but the alcohol lingers. It no longer carries a sting. It goes down as smooth as water. Fantasy also pulls him in. Immersing himself for hours in a world that would otherwise be socially unacceptable for him to be in...gambling away fortunes he himself will never realize in real life, violently killing others who stand in his way of him creating an empire for himself. It's control, control he's lost in real life.The wife is left by herself. Dealing with the reality of children, diapers, housework, career...A life she loves, but she feels again abandoned by the man who is supposed to love her unconditionally. She cries herself to sleep at night because he is to ashamed of himself to love her, so he turns away from her. And yet, he has felt the Ultimate Escape. The escape that comes from only one source...the Holy Spirit. She has felt it too...and only in His Presence do they feel the connection between themselves heal, and they feel like one again. Only in the Light can healing begin. Only there they can Escape to Peace. Freedom is coming...little by little. She cared enough to give the ultimatum. Get help or get out. Tough love. He got help for the alcohol. The only negative escape now, the only addiction left, is the game. The fantasy. But the abandonment still lingers.There is only one answer.