Set Free

Several years ago, on a spiritual renewal weekend, there was a service that emphasized giving up, or dying, to those things that would hold us captive in our lives, particularly from following Jesus. To emphasize the things that bind us, each person's hands were wrapped fairly tightly in a chain. No one else held any part of another person's chain. We were asked to reflect upon those things that held us tightly bound, and then as we felt we could name them, we were asked to notice that, though the chain was tight around our wrists, the reality was we were the ones holding on to the chain that bound us. In an act to signify our freedom in Christ, real or hoped for, we were asked to remove the chain and nail it to a cross. While this was a powerful moment for many, it was also a painful moment for some as they realized the tightness of their bonds.

How often have I railed against something I felt was holding me in bondage--usually caused by another person's actions, attitudes or words. This has happened in almost every aspect of my life--marriage, parenting, pastoring and more. What I have come to realize is that just as the ends of those chains in that service were held only by me so too am I the only one truly holding myself in any kind of bondage. How difficult this has been for me to know and yet how freeing it is when I come to know it. In my relationships, either as wife, mother, pastor, friend, colleague, mentoree, mentor, subordinate, or supervisor, there is truly nothing that can hold me in chains unless I allow it. It is freeing to claim the fullness of a relationship and my part in it rather than be angry about how someone has kept me from something I wanted.

I can't go back and re-do my life, yet in perspective I can begin to judge parts of it differently, claiming my responsibility. This helps me to see the picture more clearly, and in the process, I find that I can love more deeply.

Romans 6:16-18

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.