Chris Glazier

We almost lost a member of the Glazier family over the weekend. My wife and I are fine, but our little hamster, Polly, barely survived a harrowing adventure. It started when we left for a three-day trip to the beach. After we took off, Polly made an escape attempt worthy of Houdini. Somehow she managed to chew halfway through her water bottle, used the subsequent leverage to pull it down through its hole, then placed the bottle on the wall to walk up it like a ramp. She’s a clever rodent.

When we found her three days later, little Polly had traveled three rooms, navigated a sea of packed and unpacked boxes, climbed up a pair of paint cans stacked on top of each other, and leapt into a bathtub � which is where her epic journey ended. Unable to climb the smooth walls of the tub, Polly was forced to wait for us to come to her rescue. When we found her, she was pretty pitiful. She had lost a lot of weight, and her fur was all matted. I’ve never seen her so happy to see us.

The ironic part about all this is that Polly’s main hobby, apart from eating and running in a wheel, is trying to escape from her cage. Until now we have managed to foil her escape attempts, but during our trip she managed to make her dreams of escape and freedom a reality, only to find out that it’s not so fun on the outside. The freedom to run around wherever she wanted turned into a big problem.

How many times have we guys faced that same dilemma? God has given us these rules to live by, and much like the walls of Polly’s cage, they are there for a reason. He created life and designed it to be lived a certain way, and when we don’t live it that way, it can be big trouble.

Of course, the sinful nature inside of us makes the other side of the wall seem so much more fun. We say things like, “Look at those guys getting drunk, they’re having a blast,” or “Just looking at this Web site for a sec won’t hurt.” It seems like a good idea at the time, but we all know where those roads lead � to being stuck at the bottom of a tub, so to speak.

One thing I learned that has never left me is that God’s principles of set boundaries within which we can live meaningfully. Within them we can live, love and have our being to the fullest. Throughout my life I’ve learned a few times how God doesn’t put those boundaries there to spoil our fun, but because He knows what is on the other side of them, and how it is not good for us, and THAT is how great His love is for us. Gratefully He also knew that we would attempt escaping. Isn’t it always such a relief to see the Master (master) again?

This article “What My Hamster Taught Me about Sin” Chris Glazier was excerpted from: New Man Magazine July 2009. It may be used for study & research purposes only.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”