Forgetful Freed Men

So I was thinking today about the big things keeping me down in my personal growth, as well as my spiritual walk. Aside from plain old sloth and pride, my two deadly sins of choice, there is one really big snare that my enemy uses over and over with great success. He causes me to forget that I'm free. How does he do this with such great ease? The answer is simple.
It's because I'm an idiot.
Really, making me forget that I'm free from my chains is probably not much harder than making a goldfish forget that he already swam around the bowl--that is to say, not hard at all. The only thing he has to do is keep reminding me of the rule of prior experience: That which was so in the past and is so now will probably continue to be so in the future. Why should I think I should do anything other than sin, sin, sin? That's all I've ever done. Apparently a person in motion will remain in that motion unless acted upon by a sledgehammer or 2x4 or a crippling case of ebola. A person in sin will remain in that sin inextricably, because that's what people do---sin. I am no different, no better. Sin happened, is happening, and therefore will continue to happen.
Except that I have been set free from my sin. My natural body stands willing to be bent to the will of the Father. My imperfections are now nothing more than tools for His glory, instead of reasons to sin. There is nothing more free than that.
So someone tell me why, for the love of Bush's left pant leg, am I still RUNNING AROUND IN THE PRISON YARD LIKE I'M DOING 20 TO LIFE?
Oh wait, I already answered that.
It's because I'm an idiot.
Really, I suppose, I'm not that different from anyone else. The fact is that although the cross was the only feasible answer to man's sin separation, Jesus's death and our subsequent redemption is about the most unnatural and unbelievable offer ever.
Think about it. All the metaphors we normally use to explain Christ's sacrifice-a lender forgiving his debtor, a man taking a punishment for someone, a stranger paying off an outstanding bill you owe-all fall magnificently short for one reason. They make NO SENSE! I ask you, when was the last time you saw someone randomly decide to take a beating for someone else? I've known people that have done self-sacrificial things like that, but it was as a direct result of Christ's example. Taking the punishment for a guilty man defies our human reasoning. It's like calling up the prison and saying, "Listen, I'd like you guys to set Charles Manson free. I'd like to serve his prison sentence in his place."
Manson killed people! He killed people a lot! He probably giggled while he did it! Letting him, a menace to society, walk free while a good, upstanding citizen without so much as a traffic ticket on record sits in his cell is the sum total of everything our Juduciary system tries to avoid!
My point is, our experience has taught us that if you free the sinner, they're only free to sin again. The substitution that took place on the cross defies every rule of logic and reason, fair play, the Rule of Thumb, the Geneva Convention, and Murphy's law.
Can you tell this has always been a source of confusion for me? Okay, so He died on the cross in my place, because He loves me. That, I get, at least in my human, half-retarded sort of way. But I still committed the crime. I am the dangerous criminal. I am, so to speak, the menace to society. My debt was paid, okay, good, but I could still set an orphanage on fire without even meaning to! I'm the flawed, fallen one.
Or am I?
If Jesus took my sin, shame, and retardation on Himself on the cross, that means that He took my nature on Himself. That also means that He covered ME with HIS nature.
His perfection is now mine.
Whoa.
But I'm still running around like I can't help my imperfection.
Because I'm an idiot.
See how I brought it back around?
So, how do I STOP acting like a prisoner, I may ask, pretending that you're asking, although you probably aren't.
I think all I have to do is REMEMBER. Remember that I'm free indeed. See the temptation for what it is! Lucifer is the most clever of liars by far, putting Jenny Craig and whoever invented spray "butter" to shame. I don't pretend to know what he's up to. But the thing that he capitalizes most on-human nature-is horribly unchanging. Humans forget that there are other forces at work, because that would mean not thinking about ourselves for a minute. If we do remember Satan, more often we're blaming him (oddly enough, usually for stuff that's actually our own fault) rather than fighting him. We look to God for comfort and succour rather than weapons and strength. We're hugging the sword rather than swinging it at the dude attacking us.
Because we're idiots.
God must really protect children and idiots, otherwise we'd all have wandered off a cliff or stuck our face in a waffle iron by now.