This article is another installment in Brother P’s series, “Lessons From the Nursing Home.”

In the nursing home where I work, we have a hallway that is locked. The 100 hall is for people who are confused and may walk out of the building and get lost. There are four other halls where patients can come and go as they want.

A large portion of my job is to walk with people. I often take patients from the other (open) halls and walk them onto the 100 (locked) hall. The reason I do this is because I want the residents in the 100 hall to have more stimulation and different things to look at, and it often gives the person I am walking with a new perspective on their own health.

But occasionally the person I am walking with starts to panic when the door of the locked hall closes behind us. I gently remind the person that we are allowed to leave whenever we want, and we can turn around right now. Most of the time, the person I am with is OK with walking down the hall and greeting all the residents there.

Once we walk out of that hall, the person I am walking with will often report relief that we are no longer on the locked hallway.

It reminds me of the hymn # 81 in the Songs of Zion: “In the name of Jesus Christ, the captives are set free…”

What are you afraid of? What is holding you captive? Sin, fears, unbelief, pride, feeling inadequate? You can find relief — through Jesus — from the things that are holding you captive.

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.