WHAT'S YOUR SHAWSHANK?

Hello Fellow Free People.

"It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us FREE; therefore KEEP STANDING FIRM...and do NOT be SUBJECT again to a yoke of SLAVERY." (Galatians 2:5)

As I once again sit at the keyboard...ramblin' on...I am listening to the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies...THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. One of my favorite genre of music is the movie soundtrack. Not music inspired by the music...but the actual music playing under the actor's lines.

The SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is a movie about Andy Dufrane...who was a banker who was framed...and convicted for his wife's murder. He is sentenced to a long term at SHAWSHANK prison. The story revolves around Andy... and his optimistic sense of HOPE (confident expectation) that he would be released. Many of the friends he develops...Red (Morgan Freemon) and Brooks (James Whitmore)...have been in Shawshank a long time...and have become what is known as INSTITUTIONALIZED. They have been in prison so long...it has crushed there hope of ever getting out...and if they do get out...they cannot cope with the outside world...to the point of Brooks carving in a beam in his rooming house...BROOKS WAS HERE...just before hanging himself.

The words on the promotional poster for the movie says it all..."FEAR CAN HOLD YOU A PRISONER...HOPE CAN SET YOU FREE." Andy...with his hope eventually escapes the confines of Shawshank via a sewage pipe in to the refreshing pouring rain. With HOPE set before him...over a period of years...he slowly...methodically...daily tunneled out of prison...taking a rock to the sewage pipe...and crawling to freedom to his dream of paradise on a beach working on making a boat.

Sometimes...in our daily lives...we have a SHAWSHANK experience. We become numbed to our situations...our conditions...even the good ones...not to mention the thinks that bind us...that we become INSTITUTIONALIZED in our MINDSET. Remember what it says in Romans 8:6..."the MIND SET on the flesh is death...but the MIND SET on the Spirit is live and peace."

On a personal level...I have and in the middle of a SHAWSHANK moment. For the past 12 years...I have been employed at HCA at Southern Hills Medical Center. I love the place, the people, the work that I do...but for the last few years...it has been difficult for various reasons. The other day...another company called me up...and asked me if I would like to work for them. I went for an interview...and they asked me what it would take to get me to work for them. I layed out what it would take...and they agreed to everything. NOW... comes the moment of decision. Would I take the step...outside the confines of my comfort zone...even though the comfort zone has been unCOMFORTABLE..
and go outside the WALLS of Southern Hills. I asked the man during my interview if he had ever seen the Shawshank Redemption...and how I was in that type of MIND SET.

Well...yesterday...I accepted the job...turned in my resignation...and will be stepping into the new world on May 12th. As I do this...the old hymn rings true to me...MY HOPE IS BUILT...ON NOTHING LESS...THAN JESUS BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS...I DARE NOT TRUST THE SWEETEST FRAME... BUT WHOLLY LEAN ON JESUS' NAME...ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK I STAND...ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND...ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND. It's a new adventure.

It reminds me of a time back in the fall of 1970...when a 19 year old kid...paranoid, fearful, hooked on the things that made me paranoid and fearful...stepped outside of my personal SHAWSHANK...and accepted Jesus Christ (the D.B.R.)...and walked outside of prison into his MARVELOUS LIGHT. At the point of that decision...even in my worst hour...I had some sense of comfort of my old friends...my music... my room (that was painted totally black)...my identity. I said YES to JESUS...and NO...to SHAWSHANK (my old life).

Much like Andy Dufrane...after he crawled through the sewage pipe...and came out the other side FREE...standing in the creek with his arms raised high...and the refreshing waters washing away the external stench of the old life...I...Rodney Lewis Boyd...was SET FREE.

Because Jesus...stretched out His arms...and allowed nails to be driven in his feet and hands...NOW...I can stretch out my arms in praise for the fact that as Jesus was crucified...SO WAS I.

"I HAVE BEEN (it's good to be a has been)...crucified with Christ...and it is NO LONGER I who lives but Christ lives in me...and the life which I NOW LIVE...I live by faith in the Son of God...who loved me and DELIVERED HIMSELF up for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Hey...there's life after SHAWSHANK...LIVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love and Released Kisses
Rodney "God is Faithful" Boyd