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Almost 75 years ago a group of 76 men of the Allied Forces dug a 30 foot deep and 300 foot long tunnel to escape the brutal Stalag Luft III POW Nazi concentration camp. The story was made into a movie called The Great Escape. 

My good friend Laurence Green wrote a book about it called, Great War To Great Escape: The Two Wars Of Flight Lieutenant Bernard ‘Pop’ Green MC. It’s a great read of the ingenuity and tenacity of those men doing all they could to find life and freedom.

Of course the pic above is nothing like the small claustrophobic tunnel the men dug out to escape. The image is of a once stagnant and impassable overgrown canal infested with mosquitos and snakes that’s been dug out.

Sometimes we find ourselves in what seem like insurmountable situations. We’re up to our knees in the ‘muck’ of sadness and gloom from broken hopes and dreams. It may be life’s hard hits or a dubious past or something negative and unfortunate that we can’t shake off. The good news is that there is a Great Escape!

Have the words, ‘You can’t dig your way out of this one’ ever floated around in your mind? You may be able to relate with feelings of being stuck in your own version of hell. Sorry… maybe that was too strong a wording. I should have used the word hades or h-e-double hockey sticks. Regardless of what you call it, I’m thinking of that uncomfortable place you don’t want to be in, your own Stalag Luft III, if you will. The answer?

START DIGGING YOUR OWN GREAT ESCAPE!

Two Bible verses comes to mind,

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” Psalm 37:23-24, NIV

I tried to get up from my lazy boy living room chair the other day after watching some tv when my 65 pound pit bull Triton got tangled up in my feet. I went face forward and almost ate my 65 inch flatscreen. But, thank the Lord, I didn’t fall hard or bust my head open. I think that’s what David had in mind when he wrote Psalm 37, nothing to do with big screens tv’s, but with God guarding our steps.

The idea of the Lord holding you and me by the hand should impart courage and hope to our spirits.

Check out this other nugget of wisdom,

“We should make plans – counting on God to direct us.” Proverbs 16:9 TLB

The thought in the original language is that only the Lord can help us stand straight and tall as we go about our lives.

Notice that we are given the freedom to dig out our paths and make plans. The wise thing to do along with that is to follow Jesus!

We can work hard and smart and make exciting future plans (pic of shovel above) but a heart set on the Lord and what He said and did is what makes it all worth while. Only He knows the way to our great escape (pic of bright light next to shovel above).

Do you know the rest of the story of what happened to those 76 men trying to escape the POW camp? Only three of them made it to safety and freedom wearing civilian clothes and using forged documents. The other seventy three men were caught and fifty of them executed. The odds of escape were slim to begin with.

Life as we know it and live it is not easy. But with Jesus’ favor, love, and guidance the odds to great living increase dramatically. It doesn’t mean we won’t fall, stumble, get hurt, and even fail at times but He will hold us and lift us up and keep us moving forward so…KEEP DIGGING!

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