Trap doors

Some barriers are not enough to hold back sin | Andrée Seu

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

Life is full of trap doors. Some are ours. Some are theirs. It's what you would expect since the spiritual dimension we talk about in church is real and not just a story we tell children.

The Chronicles of Narnia is a story we tell children, but adults listening in know Mr. Lewis had more in mind than a wooden wardrobe. He himself was sucked into the kingdom by a trap door tailor-made for his elfland-loving temperament. Mine happened to be in Switzerland. My friend Jenny tumbled in through a billboard, of all things, which wouldn't have worked for me at all.

But the Enemy has his doors, too. Honestly, I don't know what the devil knows, and whether his knowledge of human nature is more of a general expertise or a study of you and me in particular, but 1 Peter 5:8 suggests he has a door with your name on it. Pity the poor lad in Proverbs 7. Caught like a deer in a thicket. Reduced to a loaf of bread by an unfortunate taste for female flesh.