I know I usually don’t give you many pictures and while some of these are ridiculous, I think they’ll help illustrate some of my points. Last night I found myself laying in bed asking God to reveal Himself to me…to talk to me…to give me ears to hear. I started praying for a number of things and people and He stopped me mid sentence when I asked that “He would release ‘him’ (the person I was praying for) from the chains he holds…” I bold that for you because in my head I was definitely trying to communicate that my request was for God to release ‘him’ from the chains that hold him…not the chains he holds! I sat and began to ponder and this is what He started to teach me. Before I start though, I want you to look at these pictures not as they are but as if they were holding the chains in their hands. I know these pictures are goofy and that’s good because I like to be goofy, but don’t miss the depth behind what I’m going to write:)
I was about to tell you to close your eyes so I could paint a picture for you, but that very well can’t work if you’re reading this now can it? Didn’t think so! So, I’ll just have to try to describe a scenario for you. Consider living in a house with a basement, main floor and an upstairs. Growing up you often were outside or running around and rarely found yourself actually in the basement. The truth of the matter was that it was a bit musty, dark, damp and well if we were honest, just felt a little weird. BUT, a sense of mystery took over sometime when your body and mind started changing themselves and morphing into something you couldn’t even imagine. For some odd reason you started to be drawn to the isolated recesses of that basement…alone…cold, with nothing but seemingless endless thoughts that overwhelmed the senses. Why are you drawn to such a place and what can be gained…or lost? You know that in younger days you wouldn’t have remained there and would even want to share what you were going through so that someone would know and understand and help you through what you were going through….but now, for some odd reason, your body screams for a dreadful silence of keeping it all to yourself.
For so many of us, our juvenile years were the years where we started to break away and gain our “independence” from anyone who would try to assert their authority over us. This step is different for each person and the depth of this struggle is unique to each situation. However, there is a lie that beckons us to search out things that were deemed off-limits and to hide within our hearts lest anyone know. It is at this time we pick up plenty of weight that I’ll call our “ball and chain.
The chains we find within that basement are picked up so ever gently …We don’t want others to see or hear or ball banging around within our hearts. We muster our strength to keep the facade that all is well despite the needless weight we carry. We find ourselves exhausted with life that once was overflowing. We get drawn a bit further into solitude each day, and somehow at some time you realize that the basement you used to avoid has become your place of retreat to avoid the world around you. It has become a place of silence and familiarity as you sit alone almost becoming afraid of the faintest whisper of hope…
This burden multiplies and what you once you thought you could carry now just becomes something you drag behind you…Every step UP out of the basement seems so dreadfully long and exhausting…Meanwhile every step back down gets the ball rolling, and because you refuse to let go of the chain, it drags you down the stairs to cuts and bruises…and blood? c’mon now!! Feeling completely beat up upon the exhaustion from trying to make it back upstairs, you deem it appropriate to sulk in the corner with your back against the wall…You crawl into the fetal position and cry yourself to sleep knowing and wishing with everything within yourself that there has to be hope…there has to be a way…there has to be more! You dream of sleeping once again in your feathery bed, full of rest that lies alone upstairs…but is past not only one flight of stairs….but two…Oh to have glorious rest once again…
For whatever reason, when we first step into sin doesn’t it seem like we are almost inclined to check out the full depravity of it before we’re serious about getting rid of it? It beats us up, dominates our thoughts and directs us to some dark deep places of loneliness. It haunts and provokes us while ridiculing us to our face with doubts, fears, temptations and lies that abound. Yet in our stubborness we hold ever so tightly to the reigns of the chains so that others won’t know…but deep inside, you know that it’s just a matter of time and living in torment like this is just not an option forever…
So, you do something “valiant” and find a way to set your face as flint to get up out of that basement once and for all. Oh what a struggle of strength and humility to actually bring your weight out into the light for all to see…But what sweet victory to be out of that basement and in a place where people see your life for what it is…The power of honesty is like the sunshine and all you want to do is bask in it. Yet, this is where so many people get stuck…what next? Now that it’s out in the open, most people continue to carry it around which is still hindering you and brings a wake of destruction to everything (including lives) behind you…If you think that your depravities and chains you still hold won’t affect the lives of those around you (especially the ones you love the most) then you need to sit down with a glass of chocolate milk and get real!!!
There are various lies that we are quite susceptible at this point in time and I will give you two of them. The first is that it becomes a contest…Who can bring the biggest ball and chain into the open? See this guy? He’s not actually connected for those of you worrying for him right now 🙂 Haha, but seriously, as stupid as this looks, there are people who will walk proudly with the biggest and baddest chain to show everyone how “real” they can be with the things they’ve gone through…It’s a notch in the belt and it leads to the second lie…”If I can carry this out in the light, maybe it will be what others need to see in order to bring their smaller struggles to the light.” I know I have thought that before and boy can I tell you that that just isn’t the way to go! What good is this man doing walking around with a weight that big? Yup, I know…but how many of us have such weight that we carry around everywhere we go!!! I ask you…what good is it to walk around with all of that weight???
The sad thing is that most everything in this life tends to get twisted…We all know that children (especially your own) watch and emulate all that you do. For those of you still walking around holding on to your chains, consider the example you are setting for those who look up to you. Have you considered the possibility that you’re setting an example that it’s not only right and acceptable, but also expected to carry needless weight? This poor girl can’t even spell b-a-l-l a-n-d c-h-a-i-n and yet she’s getting the idea of what it’s use is.
I wonder if we truly understood the effect we have on our children, if we would opt to change a few things in our lives…I know I want to and I don’t even have children…yet 🙂
Either way, I want you to notice something valuable in this picture. As adults, we always assume that the ball and chain is somehow attached to us and clings to us…hence all of the other pictures above…It is been with us so long sometimes that we don’t know what to do with it…It has become a part of us. This girl however understands that it isn’t attached to her, but since everyone else is holding onto chains, she begins to hold it as well..
Jesus talks of his glorious, beautiful, spotless bride and how He is oh so ever enthralled by her beauty and yet somehow I wonder if we fear we’re His ball and chain… I mean if we’re gonna get to heart of it all, let’s get there! Isn’t the problem really that we read of the value He has set for us and everything inside of you wants to scream at Him and say “leave the altar now because you don’t know how dirty, ugly, depraved my heart truly is…I’m not worth it God…I will serve you with what little I have but I don’t deserve more and I don’t want to bring you down…” My heart weeps because I know within me that this is a lie that has taken hold of the hearts of multitudes and stunted our growth in living a life worthy of our calling…It has stunted our freedom and enabled fears and lies to reign mightily in us instead of us ruling mightily over our fears and lies…We can be a victim or a victor in every situation (but I’ll save that for another blog) and so often we choose the victim because it’s familiar…The truth of the matter is that the chains were released at the cross and freedom became tangible as Jesus conquered the grave and rose in glorious freedom containing life and that abundantly…He’s offered a way for you to embrace Him like He has embraced you…and yet we stand before him trying to reach around and hug him while still holding ever so tightly to the chains that have weighed us down…My brother, my sister, my friend…all you have to do is drop the chains and your hands will be free to embrace something better…you can’t serve two masters and if your hands are full, what is in them will get the priority!!! Let it go…
I said earlier that the power of honesty is like sunshine, but the truth will set you free and the truth is that those chains aren’t holding you, you’re holding them! Once you realize that, the stupidity in holding them seems to be revealed and there no longer is a reason to hold them anymore. I think some of us hold them just for something to do. Beyond the joy of sunshine of letting it out there and being honest, there is an exhilirating rest and a feast He wants you to be a part of…will you join Him? will you embrace Him? will you let Him pursue the crap out of you and delight in every moment of it?
All I can say is hook a brother up…you know?
Now I’m going to leave you with another thing He whispered to my heart last night…
By my wounds you are healed….Through your wounds, my love is revealed…
isn’t that beautiful?
