It started on a solo road trip from Chicago to Minneapolis in April 2008. One hour outside of Minneapolis, I was flipping through radio stations when I landed on a remote Spanish station where it quickly became apparent that a church service was being aired as I heard “Jesucristo” spoken numerous times. Normally, I would have flipped the station, but something…maybe my affinity for learning Spanish in high school, maybe curiosity, maybe God…made me pause to listen. As the woman speaking became more emphatic in her preaching and praying, the phrase, “Sólo el sangre de Jesucristo tiene el poder para romper tus cadenas,” (“Only the blood of Christ has the power to break your chains,”) stuck out to me.
“Sólo el sangre de Jesucristo tiene el poder para romper tus cadenas.”
It struck me so powerfully that I wrote down the Spanish line in my car, in my journal and recited it to myself numerous times. At the time, there was no logical reason for the influence this phrase exhibited in my mind. I can only attribute its power to the work that God was doing in my life to break off the chains of disappointment, rejection, and loneliness, which had come from a series of recently broken relationships. In allowing God to show me His power to restore my heart and set me free, I opened the door of my heart to accepting God’s overwhelming love despite all of my past mistakes (even as a “Christian”). I didn’t know that God was in the beginning of the process of showing me how His love is more than enough for me and it is all I truly need while also breaking off restraints so that I could begin to actually believe Him.
Now, coming into ministry in Palenque, Mexico, I have the opportunity to use my Spanish to communicate with people around me. As a result, my team has asked me to be one of the translators throughout our ministry as we preach in various settings. Last week, we planned to go to a prison to perform a drama and to speak before the inmates. The skit we perform is called, “Set Me Free.” It dramatizes a girl who is plagued by the troubles of life that have chained her and the only way she can find freedom is through the power of Christ. As I wrote out a description of this skit in Spanish to present to the inmates, the same phrase, “Sólo el sangre de Jesucristo tiene el poder para romper tus cadenas,” came to mind and made sense to say both for the skit and for the audience! Eagerly, I scribbled down a paragraph description and ended it with the meaningful phrase that I could simply read before the men.
Upon arriving at the prison and settling into our seats, the wind picked up and promptly whisked my perfectly written paragraph out of my Bible, propelling it across the prison yard to an unknown location…without my knowing until I was prepared to walk up to the podium to talk about the skit we had just watched! So much for preparation… I walked to the front, Spanish phrases rumbling through my mind, hands trembling, insides doing somersaults, watching a microphone being placed in my hand…and all thoughts left my head as I looked at the faces of the inmates. I mean, truly searched the contours of tear-stained cheeks, the piercing gazes of darkened eyes clinging, clamoring and hungering for truth. I uttered a few forgettable sentences describing the skit and then, as if the mind and voice of God had filled my body, I, forcefully, practically spat out the phrase, “Sólo Jesucristo tiene el poder para romper tus cadenas,” which landed with an almost audible thud into the hearts of the men as a chorus of “Amen,” and “Aleluya,” flooded my ears and smiles broke out on faces once awash in tears.
I come to you as a broken vessel, in tears as I write of the beauty I found in a barren prison yard in Palenque, Mexico with the lone message that ONLY God has the power to bring true freedom.
