One of the items on my bucket list has been to experience the popular puzzle adventure of an escape room. Last Saturday we were able to check it off the list. My husband and I had the pleasure of puzzling ourselves out with a group of expert helpers.
We had an hour to figure out and unlock a multitude of letter and number combination locks in a Harry Potter inspired locked room - well, three rooms in fact. We started off in the smallest room and had to unlock the others by solving the puzzles that opened doors and drawers and cupboards. The reward was the Christmas gift from Hogwarts to the diligent students -- candy canes.
Actually, we were never really locked in and could leave at any time, but we entered the game and no one took an early exit before we solved the challenge. A fun time was had by all!
Personally I love puzzles, and there were all kinds including a sudoku, and a smelling challenge -- all related to the Harry Potter theme. I'm proud to say that we not only escaped, but in good time with twenty minutes left of the hour-long allotted time allowed.
It was fun, and I would happily do it again.
Almost everything I experience triggers thoughts on spirituality and this was no exception. For the past few days I've been reflecting on the experience and the thought of escaping from locked rooms and other places.
Let's face it. Life is an adventure in a locked room with many puzzles and questions that we need to figure out. Why am I here? Who made me? Am I just an accident created by evolution from the primordial soup? How can I know I really exist? Why do people believe ridiculous things? What's the purpose of my life? Is everything just a big joke? Do I live in a mindless matrix? Is there really a personal God who loves me? Why is there so much evil in the world? Who can I trust to tell me the truth? Is there really even such a thing as truth? If there is a good, all-powerful God, why does He allow so many bad things? The questions all swirl about from the time we are babies. "Why, why, why?" we ask looking for answers.
As for being "locked up" in confined spaces, we start out in the very confined "locked room" of Mama's womb. We don't have to puzzle our way out; nature takes care of that. And then we are in the wide, wide world filled with new experiences and new questions as we experience the locked room of our little world of the family. Later, we move on to the wider world of jobs and vocations and responsibilities. Do some people feel trapped by their decisions and wish they could escape? Looking up at the heavens and the vastness of the universe, we come to realize that even the earth is a limited "locked room" despite offering many smaller rooms to visit and enjoy. "Is this all there is," we ask? Ultimately, in the end, we find ourselves in the final locked room of the coffin and the grave surrounded by others in the tiny world of the cemetery from which our bodies have no escape until the final judgment.
Sometimes, the choices and mistakes we've made can make us feel like prisoners locked into a jail cell of our own making. Many face terror and despair. They aren't alone. In fact, many saints faced those moments of the dark night of the soul, when they not only felt like they were in a locked room or a deep pit, but there were no lights at all. How many felt abandoned? St. Therese experienced that darkness as she faced her death. So did Mother Teresa. Despite that desolation of soul, they persevered in trust, embracing the cross.
When we are in those situations, when we feel abandoned and lost in suffering, that's the very moment we need to look up to see the stars from our deep pit or kneel on the floor and look through the keyhole of the locked room to see the light beyond and rekindle the spark of hope within us. The soul can never be locked up except by our own choice. Many saints, martyrs, prisoners of conscience, etc. refused to let locked doors imprison their spirits. They communed with angels and soared above their prison walls. Fr. Gordon MacRae came to mind as I wrote that and his wonderful blog, Beyond These Stone Walls. The key to the locked room is Jesus and His Church. He gave the keys to Peter and promises that "The truth will set you free."
Jesus promised to never break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick. That gives me the confidence, even in the blackest locked room or the deepest pit, to retain hope because God loves me and only allows desolation to draw me closer to Him through the cross. And I'm never alone because my angel guardian will never leave, but whispers encouragement in my ear.
Are you shaking your head at me right now? Does any of this makes sense? Are these just the meandering thoughts of a silly old woman? Perhaps they are. On the other hand, was Socrates right when he said the unexamined life isn't worth living? He was certainly a man of questions. And are the questions the puzzles that take us out of the locked room to escape into God's city on a hill, a world of the true, the good, and the beautiful?
We all need a strategy for the dark times. St. Ignatius gave us one in his spiritual exercises. Always persevere in your spiritual practices when you're in desolation, he says. If you pray for half an hour every morning and feel like you want to pitch the prayers and turn on the TV, add two minutes to your prayer time even if it seems worthless and as dry as dust. If you pray the rosary every day, add an extra decade. Do some acts of penance and remain faithful to your little rule of life. God will soon reward the soul's fidelity with consolation even if the troubling circumstances contributing to your desolation continue to swirl around you.
Jesus promised that the kingdom can begin on earth when he said, "Lo, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21) We can begin the great escape here on earth by letting the Master show us the way. He gave the keys to the apostles so they could rescue us from locked rooms with the seven keys of the sacraments. Let us pray that many come to recognize how essential the faith is to escape from all the locked rooms of life and make our way to the final great escape when we meet the Lord and hope to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy."
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
"Are these just the meandering thoughts of a silly old woman? Perhaps they are. On the other hand, was Socrates right when he said the unexamined life isn't worth living? "
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like I *think* too much. Sometimes I just don't want to think. And I'm a thinker by nature so it's hard to turn it off and just be.
(Not talking about examination of conscience for confession).
Escape rooms are a popular hobby in our family. We even do boxed games of escape rooms.