About five years ago, on vacation on the Central Coast, we got introduced to something we had never experienced before. It’s called an escape room. I had heard about it from my children but never experienced it. We got our tickets and got taken into this room and given a time limit of one hour to get ourselves out of the room by finding all the clues in one hour.
The first time one does an escape room can be overwhelming. You are told the room’s theme with a one-minute video explanation, and inside that explanation are some clues. When the explanation is over, the 1-hour countdown clock begins, and you start walking around this room looking for clues that you have no idea might or might not be a clue.
You walk around opening drawers, lifting artwork, and moving pictures, all to find clues; clues can be what look like random bottles, but when they are collected and placed in a particular order, a hidden door might fall out of a desk, or a flashlight might reveal a letter written in ink that can only be seen with a black light bulb that is part of a normal-looking flashlight.
I often think about the correlation between the escape room and all its hidden clues and reading the Bible for the first time—just like the first time you go into an escape room and nothing seems to make sense, the Bible is often confusing. 1 Corinthians 2:7 says, “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.”
The longer we read, the deeper we pray God’s word comes alive, and all of a sudden, you see and understand God’s wisdom, and everywhere you read, no matter how many times in the past you have read the same passage before you find more nuggets of wisdom. The best part is that every nugget found has a perk. You might find healing from a childhood wound, the answer to a problem in your marriage, or the best nugget ever read in all of scripture, which is the conviction of sin so you can live forgiven and free.
For example, when it looks like there is no way out in an escape room, life’s problems can feel the same. Past hurts, financial difficulties, and addictions can seem hopeless, but with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can all overcome and become free men and women. This Sunday, we will open God’s word to the last section of 1 Corinthians 2 and hunt for nuggets we can all take home.
See you this Sunday at 9 and 11 AM as we celebrate our men and women who have sacrificed everything so we can live free and attend any church we choose this Memorial Day Weekend.