Harry Houdini, a great escape artist in the early part of the twentieth century who claimed he could escape through any locked door of a cell, vault or submerged trunk in three and a half minutes, explained some of his escape methods in his memoirs.

In one very famous incident, he was challenged to get out of a state-of-the-art bank vault in London. All his clothing was checked before he went in the vault. But it was in his contract that any time he was going to do an escape exhibit; he was able to kiss his wife goodbye because he never knew if he was going to get out again. On this particular occasion as he kissed his wife goodbye, his wife passed a little wire from her mouth to his. So when he went down into the bank vault he had a piece of watch spring in his mouth and, when everyone left him to try to get out, he took the watch spring and started to pick the lock on that vault door.

Usually he could hear the clicks as he worked on a lock but this time after working on it for one minute, he didn’t hear any clicks. He was puzzled. He kept trying, but still no clicks and time was passing quickly.

He got to two minutes and thought, “I’m going to fail this; I only have a minute and a half left. All the press is here, it’s the height of my fame and here I am; I haven’t been able to do it yet.” Usually he would do it in half the time.

It got to three minutes and he was no closer. He was sweating profusely, so he reached in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead and attempt to open the lock in the last thirty seconds. As he pulled out the handkerchief, he accidently leaned against the vault door – and it opened! It wasn’t even locked. The people who put him in there had forgotten to lock the door.

But in his mind even though the door was not locked, until he leaned against it by accident, it was locked.

When we are facing obstacles in our lives we are often in that same state of mind; we think we are locked in to a particular state of being. And yet all we have to do is keep moving forward and push on that door, and we find that it wasn’t locked at all.

Freedom is always present, but we have to be willing to push the door; we have to discover that we can move through that obstacle, through that barrier, or under it, or over it, or around it. We have to keep moving forward.

In the year 1985, twenty-five years ago, I became a naturalized citizen of the United States at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia.

We drove our car up to Monticello from Roanoke, Virginia, where we lived and worked as ministers of Unity Church of Roanoke Valley. Forty-two members of our church rented a bus to take them to the ceremony; they all had little flags to wave for this very special occasion.

In the process of applying for citizenship, taking the required tests, and then attending the naturalization ceremony, I had some trepidation; I thought after all that preparation I may not get accepted as a citizen because I had lost my green card.

On becoming a naturalized citizen you have to surrender your green card, or alien registration card, before you can become a citizen. I could not find that card anywhere; it was not in my wallet in its usual place, and I scoured the house but couldn’t find it.

I said to Kathryn, “Well, let’s just go anyway. We’ll just go up there and see what happens. They may not take me, but we’ve got to follow through on this process.” So we went up there and there were people from a great many different countries coming into citizenship. Everyone was in line, getting their papers in order. The Daughters of the American Revolution were helping process the people and I saw everyone handing in their green card.

I got up there and the person before me said, “Have you got your green card?” And I responded, “I’m sorry, but I have mislaid it or lost it somewhere.” She said, “Oh! Well, don’t worry about it; if you find it you can send it in to us.” After all that concern it was so easily resolved.

Our fears often keep us from enjoying the freedom that is naturally ours. Things happen, but we need to know that our freedom can never really be taken away from us because the true freedom is within us.

We often think that things have to be let go of in order to have freedom; we can’t have freedom if we have sickness, we can’t have freedom if we’re tied to a certain job, we can’t have freedom if we’re not getting along with our spouse, or whatever it might be. We relate freedom to escape, of escaping from something.

True freedom is not escape; true freedom is finding spiritual resources within ourselves; we can change our attitude, we can change the way we think about something, and then the situation itself can change.

Victor Frankl, the Viennese psychiatrist, talked about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. He said it was amazing in these awful and debasing conditions that the people would not surrender in their minds; they were able to think the thoughts that they wanted to think. He said it was amazing, that there were people who were kind to everyone and would give their last crust of bread to someone else, or would share a kind word or a smile, in the midst of those conditions. They determined what they were going to think; they were not going to let circumstances determine what they thought.

We too can recognize that, in any condition, we can choose the thoughts that we think and we can choose the attitudes we have. We don’t have to be controlled by circumstances or by people; we can choose what we want to think.

The freedom is where you are, not somewhere else. There is a freedom that you can have now, and that’s the freedom I believe Jesus was talking about when he said, “If you know the truth, then the truth will make you free.”

You can make your choice of how you will think about a situation, and that choice can be better or bitter; it’s up to you. The gift of choice that each of us has is a great gift of God.

So let’s be creative in thinking about our freedom. Let’s think about it as freedom to be, freedom to draw on those spiritual resources in the midst of whatever we are facing. When you are facing something, don’t try to escape from it, decide to be strong, decide to understand, and decide to find a way that is transcendent. You’ll move right on through the situation; and find yourself free.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

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