I remember as a five or six year old how I was stuck and how I could not get “unstuck”. I was glad when my father came home the afternoon and after he parked his car in the garage I offered to close the door of the garage. He went inside the house.   It was one of those garage doors working with counter weights on the inside. I managed to get the door moving down and pulled hard to get it shut. My one hand was at the bottom of this door and the momentum of the door was too quick for me to pull my fingers away. So there I was, the latch of door clicked and my fingers were trapped at the bottom of the door between the edge of the door and the cement floor. It was a bit painful, but I thought this was going to be easy to get out of here. All I need to do is to reach to the handle of the door and to open it with my other hand and I would be free. Easy enough!

The challenge was that I was trapped at the side of the door very close to the side wall and my arm was just too short to reach the lever which was in the centre of the door. So I tried to lengthen my arm to reach there, but I just could not. I was trapped on the one side with a door that would not budge and it was painful to try to get my fingers out. My other arm was jus too short to reach the handle. I was thinking, “how could I sove this problem?” There seemed to be no way out. I was also embarrassed – how did I get stuck like this?

So I started calling, “dad, dad”. At first the call was soft. Then I became more desperate and started calling louder and louder. My dad did not hear me as he was inside the house and the front door was closed. I was shouting loudly now, but still he did not come. My throat was getting sore with all this shouting. I tried again to open the door by pulling at the door with my free hand, but the door would not budge. Then I called again and I waited. What was happening? Why did my dad not come?

Then, suddenly, he was there… “I was wondering what took you so long”, he said. “Dad, I am stuck.” Well of course to me it felt if I was stuck, but it was only my hand. Within a few seconds, my dad opened the door and I was free. “Thank you, pappa”, and the “being stuck” disappeared and I could get on with being free and being protected.

I am not sure where you are today in your life. It may be that you are stuck somewhere …. relationships, health, wealth. Let me pray for you that my Dad can help you to become free again. Email: h@hansielouw.com or 082 776 5462, South Africa (code +27)