What is Out of the Snare all about?

You know that saying “when life gives you lemons…”? I have had a lot of lemons in my life. Except, I couldn’t just make some lemonade and move on, because a lot of my “lemons” turned out to be traps designed to latch onto me when I least expected it and literally suffocate the life out of me.

Have you ever felt like this? Like, maybe the whole “lemons” analogy is just a little too soft? Let’s be real, life gives us a whole lot worse than lemons. It gives us pain and suffering and seemingly-never-ending struggles. You can’t just make some lemonade and move on from that. Life just doesn’t work that way.

I think a snare trap is a really great representation of how life can be sometimes (much better than making lemonade), and since my blog is titled “Out of the Snare,” I figured this first post would be a good time to really explain what a snare is (if you don’t already know) and why getting out of it is actually a really big deal.

A snare trap is actually very simple. You have a loop, usually made of some sort of rope or wire, and it’s attached to something like a branch or tree, and it either hangs in the air or lays on the ground. Then, and unsuspecting animal walks through, not realizing there is a trap, and gets caught in it. Often times, it winds up around their neck, but sometimes it could be a leg. The catch (no pun intended) is that the more they try to move forward and get out of it, the tighter it gets. It’s a trap that is seemingly impossible to get out of.

But the good news is that it’s not, in fact, impossible! Someone can come along and cut the rope, break that loop that is threatening to suffocate the animal, and then they’re free! To get out of it on their own would be unheard of, but to have someone save them from it wouldn’t be unthinkable.

Our lives can work much the same way. At least, mine has. We find ourselves in situations that might feel like a snare would to an animal. We get caught in them when we least expect it, when we are just trying to move through life and do what we need to do. All of a sudden, something comes out of nowhere and catches us off guard, and then we try to fix it. We try so hard to push through and make it work and keep on living, even though we’ve got this horrible thing holding onto us. The more we try to move forward (oftentimes trying to ignore our “trap” at the same time), the tighter the hold becomes. Hopefully, we realize that we can’t get out of it alone. What pains me most is knowing that so many people never come to this realization, or maybe they do, but they don’t want or don’t know how to ask for help.

I was there for a long time. I thought that I could just push through the struggles of life and move past my painful moments until, eventually, they just wouldn’t be there anymore. But the more I did that, the worse I felt. I was in a constant state of fear, worry, and pain. I never felt truly happy and content in my life because I was always caught in my snare. It wasn’t until I realized that I actually couldn’t do it alone that I started to feel some relief.

This is still a HUGE work in progress for me. Getting help is not easy. A lot of times, it hurts just as much as the snare itself. Think of a deer caught in that snare trap. Deer are animals of prey. It is in their very nature not to trust others, and to let someone close enough to release them from the snare would be terrifying. In fact, they would probably start to struggle even more in order to get away from the person trying to help them, and that struggle would cause the snare to tighten even more, once again highlighting the true pain they are in.

That’s what getting help usually feels like, in my opinion. It tends to highlight all the things that are going wrong, and you really have to face those things head-on.

Okay, so now imagine this. That same deer sees someone approaching, but instead of fearing that person, the deer has this sense, this knowledge, that the person approaching is there to help. The person isn’t there to hurt them, but rather, they are on the deer’s side. They want the deer to be set free. Imagine the difference that would make. Sure, the deer might still be nervous, because again, it is in their nature not to trust. They might want to struggle a bit when the person grabs hold of the snare in order to release it. But they know, despite all of their fears, that in the end, they will be set free.

This is what God wants us to realize about Him. In the end, He is always on our side. It doesn’t mean we won’t have to struggle. It doesn’t mean there won’t be pain. And it certainly doesn’t mean we won’t encounter more snares later. But it does mean that He will always be there to set us free, no matter how many times we get caught. If only we could learn to set aside our fears and let Him close enough to help. Sometimes that help is through Him working on our hearts; sometimes it’s Him opening up doors for us to get out of certain situations; sometimes it’s Him sending the right people at the right time; sometimes it’s through other means. But it always starts with us having relationship with Him and trusting that He is on our side.

If the Lord had not been on our side— let Israel say— if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us.

Psalm 124:1-3, NIV

My hope is that this blog will help my readers to understand this, and to see the hope and life that trusting in Him can provide. I have had my fair share of snares, but I’ve also seen what life can look like when I am free of them. Like I said, it’s still a work in progress. I’m not free of all my snares yet, and to be honest, I don’t know that I will be until I get to heaven (I mean, this is a rough world, is it not?). But I can assure you that it is SO much easier to work through all of my battles when I am trusting in someone who is far greater than I am.

So, there you have it. That’s the premise of what this blog is, and what the name means to me. From here, who knows what you’ll get out of this! I want to be vulnerable. I want to talk about my own snares, and the very real feelings I felt during them. But I also want to talk about life outside of the snare! I want to talk about my hopes and dreams, and what God has given me as I move past my hurts and trauma. I want to talk about the good things in this world, not just the painful things.

I hope you will join me on this ride as I figure out what exactly it is the Lord wants me to say through this platform. Thank you so much for being here and reading this far; it truly means the world to me!

Until next week!