Do you like scary stories? I guess I have one for you.

The other night, I was home alone. Something extremely rare. In fact, I cannot remember the last time it happened. To be honest, I really, really, enjoyed it. I did not have to check school work, break up arguments, or find acceptable food items for the smaller household members to ingest. I only had to take care of myself. And I am fairly easy to care for.

I was sitting in my living room, feet propped up on the recliner, relishing the quiet of the house and watching the sun fade through the window. It was nice.

I had my iPad in my lap and had just opened a webpage when I heard a slight noise across the room. It sounded like someone just got out of the chair across from me.

Now, this chair across from me reclines, but it also rocks. It’s the coolest thing ever. A rocking and reclining chair. The only thing about the chair that sort of annoys me is that it only fits in my living room one way. It has to be in this particular spot or the whole room looks a mess. It doesn’t belong anywhere else. It has to be across from my recliner end of the couch, by the window.

Remember, I am the only one at home. No one got out of the chair across from me because no one else was there. Yet, when I look across the room to where I heard the sound, the chair is rocking wildly. I just stared at it, dumbfounded. I watched it until it slowed and came to a stop.

I know what you are thinking, “It was a ghost!”

Yeah, I don’t think so. I was, however, slightly confused. Not only was the entire household gone, but the dog was outside. No possible way she could have bumped it and set it in motion. So what happened?

Well, before I conclude my scary story, can I make a connection? Our life is a lot like that chair. It has a purpose. It has a place in the grand living room of life. It has a place where it fits best and when it’s not in that place, it can make everything around it seem a mess.

Just like my chair in the living room, every now and then, something unseen can set it out of kilter. It can rock wildly or get locked so tight it won’t budge. We can find ourselves wondering what happened. What set us off? What knocked us out of our place by the window? What disrupted the peaceful solitude?

No, my rocking recliner chair had not been set in motion by an unseen ghost.

Earlier in the day, my son had been sitting in that chair. He mentioned that it was not rocking right. It seemed to be catching on something every now and then. Sure enough, the mechanism had caught underneath. Eventually it released later that evening, when I was home…all by myself….enjoying the peace and quiet.

Good thing he had mentioned that to me earlier or I might have had a much different conclusion to my scary story. Until the chair had taken off rocking on its own, I had forgotten all about what he had said. I thought everything was great as I sat in the living room. It looked fine. It seemed fine.

In the same way, our lives can get caught up in a multitude of ways, all relating to one thing – sin. When that happens, even if we are in the right location, fitting in the right spot, ready to be used (like my chair) we will be stuck or rocking wildly out of control.

Sin keeps us in patterns that make us unusable until the Spirit of God steps in and releases us from the sin that has us under its control. And let’s be honest, sometimes we don’t even realize there is a problem. We have accepted the sin and we live in it. That’s the real scary story. Not my independently moving chair, but the sin we let creep into our life that sets us up for a fall.

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” ~ 1 Corinthians 10:13