So, what’s your plan of escape?  Stop and consider for a moment every hotel room you’ve ever been in before in your life.  My guess is you’ve noticed posted somewhere in the room a diagram that shows how you need to proceed in order to find the most direct escape route in case of an emergency.  In other words how to “exit safely.”  Sometimes it seems everywhere we turn there are exit signs heralding how we leave somewhere.  Even in business the common device for leaving a company is known as an “exit strategy.”  Come to think of it many couples have adopted their own form of emergency exit from marriage.  It’s called divorce.  As I consider this it seems as if we’ve become in many ways conditioned to planning our exit even before our arrival.  This “conditioning” of sort’s points to what I’ve seen in many men over the years.  That being a condition where it appears men are more apt to be driven by what they are running from than what they are actually drawn towards.  Parenthetically this seems to be a clarion signal that something is profoundly missing in their life.  (More on that in the days ahead.)

Well, I’ve been thinking about this whole idea of “exiting” and was wondering just how different things might appear if we could begin to see life through the lens of a new strategy…an “entrance strategy.”  I mean what if rather than allowing ourselves to always be on high alert for the way out of something we were in a constant search for the way in? Just imagine how this could this be a “game changer” in our lives?  Just imagine the effects of choosing to “enter in” to the lives of those closest to us in a deep and abiding way rather than running from an incessant reluctance to be fully known.  Or just imagine the life giving effects of choosing to enter in to community rather than seeking to escape to the illusionary comfort of isolation.  I wonder too if such a strategy would even cause us to run towards our weakness and our pain.  Consider the “what if” effects of that for just a minute.  What if we begin to celebrate our weaknesses with each other rather than genuflecting like peacocks pretending that we can do this thing we call “life” all within our own strengths.  Come to think of it I seem to recall a timeless truth that affirms that our weakness can be made perfect in strength.  How you might ask? Well, it’s all because of grace.  But to find that grace it might just require you to pursue a new strategy and “enter into” a relationship with the Giver of all grace.  But here’s the good news.  When you do you’ll never need to concern yourself with escaping again. Peace.