Someone had a dream. In the dream she saw a bird cage with a bird inside the cage flying to an forth, from one side of the cage to the other, looking like it wanted out. So the person in the dream saw herself go to the bird cage and rip the door off its hinges, leaving a large gaping hole in one side of the cage. She stepped back and waited for the bird to fly free. But the bird remained in the cage, flying from one side to the other, never leaving its self-captivity. And she heard God say to her in the dream. “I gave you salvation through my death on the cross, but you remain still enslaved by your own sinful ways.”

Another image: four birds in a large enclosure, like in a bird sanctuary. Two are flying from one side to the other seemingly trying to get free of the enclosure. One is sitting in a melancholic state on a perch, neither flying, nor singing, nor eating–almost in a cationic state. A fourth bird is eating and eating and getting fatter and fatter, flying less and less because it is becoming more difficult to do.

Ps 124: “Our life, like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the fowler. Indeed the snare has been broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

One day someone comes and makes a gaping hole in the enclosure. One bird sees the hole and escapes, flying freely away; another bird continues to fly from one side of the enclosure to the other, never accepting nor acting on the opportunity given for true, full freedom. The bird on the perch is so full of fears that even though it sees the opening it is afraid to leave the enclosure for fear of failure, guilt, shame, self-condemnation, etc. It shivers on the perch, neither eating nor flying, just slowly dying. The fourth bird just keep enjoying the limited food of its captivity, getting fatter and fatter, until it cannot fly if it wanted to. Thus it remains in the self-contained bondage of its addiction.