Easy to Enter, Harder to Leave

Before each summer, I forget the annoyance caused by flies and wasps. No matter how small the gap in the window, they will find it, and enter the house. When it comes to taking their leave, they prove somewhat less intelligent. The gap through which they initially entered is now too small. Open a door or window fully, and they’ll lack the wit to go through, instead preferring to angrily buzz against the pane. They find it easy to enter, but not so easy to exit. One might remove the entire roof or wall of a house, and still flying insects would find themselves stuck.

Last month, a convicted burglar attempted to abscond from the dock of a Lancashire Magistrates’ Court, his bail application having been rejected. The guard grabbed hold of him, while the Presiding Justice pressed the panic alarm and other security staff came running in. Even if the guard had lost his grip, the only way out down the stairs would have brought him to the local police station's custody suite, so he would not have got very far. It is easy enough to land oneself in a cell, but not so easy to escape.

In our nation, it takes little effort to obtain illegal drugs, to locate purveyors of heroine and cocaine. The first deliveries often come at generous discount, the suppliers enthusiastically welcoming the establishment of a new commercial relationship. Paying the increased prices or even breaking free from the drugs’ iron hold is easier said than done. Here is as cruel a slavery as ever there was- and the victims freely offer their wrists and ankles for its heavy shackles with terrifying enthusiasm. Quick to become enslaved, harder to be liberated. 

Hell is easy to enter, for it involves doing nothing at all. Yet from it there is no escape, ever. Heaven, its opposite, is also easy to enter, for the gospel has purchased all the entry tickets and freely distributes them to all who would ask. From heaven, too, there is no escape; those within have no desire to ever leave, for the Beloved dwells therein, who is the source of all life. So make your choices carefully. It is often easier to get in than it is to get out. Therefore head somewhere you know you will never wish to depart.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,

Some to everlasting life,

Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Those who are wise shall shine

Like the brightness of the firmament,

And those who turn many to righteousness

Like the stars forever and ever.

Daniel 12:2-3

Image by Valentino75 from Pixabay