Freeze Tag

Finding the Balance of Safety, Freedom, and Rescue

Photo by Renaud Confavreux on Unsplash

One of my favorite games growing up was Freeze Tag. The version we played had one person who was “it” chasing all the others around the yard. When tagged, you had to freeze and stay frozen until someone tagged you and unfroze you. There was always a home base where you were “safe” from being tagged. It was annoying when someone stayed on home base for too long or hovered within arm’s reach, never taking chances, never rescuing frozen ones.

To play Freeze Tag well required a balance: running free, rescuing others, and resting in the safety of home base.

Psalm 7 begins, “O Lord, my God, I take refuge in You” (Ps 7:1). God is our home base, our safety from the storm, our refuge. For me, the place of that refuge is my spacious time each morning journaling, in quiet and in Scripture, and resting in Him. Without that home base, I end up exhausted and eventually frozen.

I am not meant to stay on home base or hover close to its safety. I am invited to run free and live in the vibrancy of unfreezing others. The rhythm of Freeze Tag – safety, freedom, rescuing – mirrors the calling of our lives. Without all three elements, life teeters off balance. Safety and freedom without rescuing is selfish and purposeless. Freedom and rescuing without safety is exhausting and unsustainable. Safety and rescuing without freedom is grinding and joyless.

Three needed logs of a stool without which we will stumble and fall. The log of refuge: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Is 30:15). The log of freedom: “He brought me into a spacious place” (Ps 18:9). “He makes me lie down in green pastures” (Ps. 23:2). The log of rescuing: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send the workers into the harvest field” (Matt. 9:37).

Time to play Freeze Tag!