What I Learned From an Escape Room

Last week a group of us from my community headed out for a fun-filled day that started with going to the “Countdown 2 Escape” here in Frisco. It is an Escape Room adventure where you go into one room and through a series of opening up boxes, drawers, and closets to find riddles, puzzles and clues to get through another door where even more challenges await us. It was my second time for this kind of adventure. My family took me on one for my birthday last year in Austin. It takes a ton of mental ability (Lord, have mercy!), lots of patience, thinking outside the box, teamwork and communication. There were about 25 of us who went and were divided into three different experiences. You have an hour to escape.

That experience made me think about this life we live and figuring out God’s ways and desires for us in this room called earth to eventually escape to our home sweet home in heaven. It takes a lot of patience, sticking to the rules, communication, teamwork and if we do our part, we’ll eat the good of the land here even before we go there. Isaiah 1:19 says “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land.” I see my co-adventurers out there in social media land. I love watching your life adventures and most of all seeing you communicate your faith and even your times of difficulty and then see you weather the season and come “out of the room” with victories.

In that Escape Room, you can’t escape with duct tape over your mouth. You have to communicate to your group when you’ve found something. If you run into a stalemate, there is a Game Master watching you from another room, and if you ask, he or she will help you via a monitor. Doesn’t that sound like us? Especially when we’ve done all we can do on our own and we turn to God for help. He gives us an idea or a creative plan to get us out. We get to share our “how-to’s” with each other.

In our Escape Room, teamwork was huge in our success. All of us shared the same goal – to escape within the allotted sixty minutes. Thank God for all the various ways that teamwork plays such a significant role in our “life’s great escape” – our church, Bible Study, loving and faithful friends, family members, support groups and so many others who assist us in being devoted followers of Christ and help us escape on time. We need each other.

Every single thing in the Escape Room had a use – be it to distract us from the real thing or the key we found in a drawer that opens another thing. Every one of our life experiences has a meaningful use to it. I know that now as I look back on my life and realize that everything was making me stronger and wiser and more on purpose.

Consistency was key in our Escape Room. Some folks found a chair and gave up, but others of us refused to give up. We were persistent and determined. Our Game Master was always there to help get us out of tough spots. So does our Heavenly Game Master Who promises to never leave us or forsake us. He ensures that we complete our mission.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6

We Have a Treasure Inside

I have been known for notorious treasure hunts for years -- since my oldest grandchildren were too young to read the clues. We had to read for them and then they’d run to the location. It was always Nana and Papa's way of spicing up birthday fun. It’s a work out to get the rhyming clues together then hiding them at specific locations. Then it’s the birthday boy or girl running to all the locations for the next clue until it concludes with the grand finale treasure found. I have loved making those memories.

But my two children never experienced treasure hunts – it started with the grands. So, I did something about that for my son’s birthday yesterday. It was hilarious for us to follow him around to each of nine locations. I made it so easy for him – NOT hard-to-find locations by any means. As Braden, his oldest son said, “Good thing you did it that way, Nana! He doesn't have to overwork his mind!" Clear, concise clues out-in-the-open and obvious next-clues. For example: The first clue sent him to their fitness room. A box of popcorn was found with a note that read: “Our heart pops for pop-u-lar YOU! The clue read: “Go to the billiard room and find your next clue!” There he found a plastic lion and note that said “You are the King of our jungle!” The next clue was “Go to the patio. Under a chair, you’ll find your next clue there!” There he found a light bulb and highlighting markers with a note that said: “You light up our lives!”

There were several more “love you” items and clue locations that led to the finale treasure: lots of Braum’s chocolate almond ice cream quarts and cones that should last him for several months. A true treasure indeed when there are no Braums here in Austin, and for a guy whose favorite ice cream is that one. He was hilarious and a good sport going here and there like my grandchildren have done for years.

This “treasure hunt” led me to consider the scripture, 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” This verse not only says we’re jars of clay. Perhaps we’d rather be heavenly angels, not earthly jars made out of clay. Why did God make us as clay jars, so easily broken and seemingly not worth so much?

Oh, but that's not how God sees it. He made no mistake when He created us. He already had myriads of angels. He wanted something new and even more special. He made man of the dust of the ground to be on the earth, not as angelic beings in the heavens. He had a plan and a special purpose for us, even in our earthen-clay-jars. In that state – we don’t get the credit. We aren’t the treasure. Christ is. He is the treasure within us that shines out of us. Instead of creating us as strong, independent creatures to express our own glory, God created us clay jars, desiring that we would express His remarkable glory.

Now we can see the preciousness of being jars of clay. We can do this because we’re containers of the greatest treasure that empowers us, fills us to overflowing measures of love and grace, expressing Him to the world around us. So, in reality we are “Treasure" chests that carry the precious treasure of Him and overflow with Him to express Him to a world that needs Him as their greatest treasure, too!

We may be clay jars, but we’re something so special to God. We’re the center of His plan, His heart’s desire, and we fulfill our purpose by being continually open to His filling so He can overflow from within us. The clues to this "Treasure Hunt" are simple. The Apostle Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 13:5 "Do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?”

The Escape Game

Among the epic adventures, my family and I enjoyed during my birthday weekend, The Escape Game topped the charts! Many people like playing games that challenge the mind and video games that avatars try to escape a situation, but this took it to a whole new level. WE were the characters and WE had to tackle solving scientific puzzles, decoding clues, performing math problems and solving scientific puzzles. Multiple locked boxes and clues were scattered throughout the room and we had to decipher those clues to hidden keys and combination passwords.

The themed rooms of 4th & 5th Grade Classes, Playground and Locker Room were chosen for us. We were locked in, and we had one hour to escape by solving all the challenges. With 13 of us in that room trying to figure out the combinations and situations so we could escape, it was a blast! I knew how passionate my family was about competitive games, but here we were one team trying to escape together. We were shouting out answers to questions and then getting so pumped when someone solved a task and a lock would open a door to the playground with all sorts of props used to solve the next challenge. Once that room was completed, the last room (the locker room) opened.

At the end of 60 minutes, we still needed about 5 more minutes to solve the last challenge. We didn't escape, but fortunately, the Master Gamer, watching us from another room the whole time, saved us from the peril of forever being held captive in school.

We learned many lessons:
~ Teamwork is the key to making the dream work.
~ Brainstorm before tackling the situation individually.
~ Letting the "experts" handle "their field of expertise" (i.e., the math guy, Payton Wallace, tackled the math problems for us! And the firefighter guy, Braden Wuerch, knew to “break the glass” and whoa-la – magic happened!
~ Communication is KEY to solving group challenges.
~ It is so gratifying and satisfying as a team when another WIN takes place, especially for the one that solved the puzzle.
~ After the fact, we realized we should have had ONE leader that led the charge. Yes, my family is packed full of leaders who don't succumb easily to being followers.
~ Ask for help when needed (there were monitors that were on the walls that if we all raised our hands and said “HELP”, we’d be given a clue that gave us an “AHA” moment.) We realized we didn’t escape because we didn’t ask for help enough.
~ We were all engaged in wanting to WIN together.
~ We were sure we counted the footballs correctly for the number we needed on a puzzle, but we didn’t look high or low enough. We spent way too much time on that decoding because we overlooked the obvious!

The lessons learned from The Escape Game can be applied to our lives on a daily basis. Every day we encounter challenges, problems, and situations that come our way. It is up to us and many times, our team, to decode messages, find clues that help us open up our minds to new ideas to complete a project or figure out a problem that is facing us. God is our Master Gamer keeping watch over how we handle situations. Instead of relying totally on the "goods" we have, He is waiting for us to say "HELP ME" and just like in The Escape Game, when we did, we would be given a clue that opened our eyes to what we needed. He has given us the Team Playbook (The Bible) for the clues and answers to all our problems, challenges and situations we encounter on a daily basis. If we grab each other’s hand while playing this game of life and help each other to succeed, then all locks, doors, and boxes will open wide to us for our GREAT ESCAPE. It will come when it is our time to escape into our real forever playground to live with Him eternally in a place where there will be no desire to ever escape.