I grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show. I am pretty confident I have seen every episode more than once.
As I look back, I start to see why it was so loved – for there is something relatable in each character, and something recognizable from them in each one of us. Barney, Aunt B, Opie, Floyd, Andy Taylor – each one giving us a glimpse into our own lives.
But there is one person on the show we may want to push aside, or at least not admit there is something recognizable from him in us, and that is Otis – the town drunk.
He was the one who would stop by the sheriff’s office, walk right into a cell, and lock himself in to ‘sleep it off.’ We would laugh, because the keys to the cell were not only accessible to Otis, but hung where he could reach them and leave at any time.
And it is to this I ask all of us to consider, what is it about Otis, that we would rather be comfortable in our cell when, in Christ, we can leave at any time and be free?
Is it fear – fear of the unknown; fear of failure; fear of change; fear of letting God down. Is it doubt – that maybe God hasn’t forgiven and forgotten everything we have done. Whatever it is, I know a lot of Otis’ in life, and at times that Otis is me.
It is time to do what it takes, to leave the comfort of our cells once and for all, to not hang the keys back where we can get at them, but throw them away for good.
It is time to be liberated by Christ, truly, fully, completely, and step forward in this new day, IN Christ.
