30 September | Youth
«Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.» John 8:36
One of the most bizarre cases of home captivity occurred in the village of Arefinsky, Russia. A 42-year-old woman was kept as a prisoner since she was sixteen, inside the house, by her own mother. The house was in sub-human conditions. There was no electricity or running water. The last bath she remembered had been years ago. The place was infested with rats and cats. The case only came to the attention of the police after a long time, when her mother, already elderly and sick, needed to be hospitalized urgently.
When asked what led her to do such harm to her own daughter, she said, “I kept her trapped to protect her.”
That mother feared losing her daughter to the world. She did not want her to meet people, who, from her mother’s perspective, were dangerous. One of the daughter’s statements after her release was this: “My life is worse than a cat’s life. Cats have more rights than me. I no longer exist.”
Due to her captivity, Nadezhda Bushueva had no idea how the world worked and did not notice time passing.
Freedom is a right that cannot be denied to human beings. No one is authorized to “protect” someone by taking away their free will. God made a point of creating us as free beings, and He always worked to guarantee this value for His children. There is no protection without freedom.
The story of Nadezhda Bushueva’s captivity can illustrate what happens when we allow the enemy to imprison us in the prison of sin. The devil’s purpose is to keep us in deplorable conditions of addictions, bad habits, dependence, and imprisonment. He is an oppressor and tyrant. He always looks for a way to imprison people. Fame, wealth, money, pleasure, and power in the hands of Satan become powerful baits to enslave and destroy.
Jesus is the only one who promises us life in abundance and freedom (John 10:10). Only God’s presence can guarantee that we will be free and protected. As the apostle Paul says: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17). Allow Jesus to reign in your life today and always!