Chains

So I'm sitting here in the Brentwood Starbucks reading and writing on N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope for one of my classes, while in my normal pattern I distractedly look around to observe all those who are in Starbucks currently. After observing the various meetings and coffee dates taking place a little boy catches my eye. He is enjoying a piece of what appears to be lemon pound cake while intently looking at his grandmother, who is currently on her cell phone. They talk back and forth for a while during which he intently looks at her. You can see the admiration and love in his eyes as he looks at her. She clearly has a large impact on his life. Now before you call me creepy and weird hear me out. It suddenly struck me how many different opinions and things that this young boy will be taught, if it hasn't already started, that he should or shouldn't do, what makes him a good or bad person, or a good or bad Christian. We are all taught chains from a very young age. Now I don't mean literal chains, but rather chains as in expectations and the dos and don'ts that we should live by for a given result. We are all taught or we quickly learn that for people to like you certain behaviors are ok while others are not. Unfortunately, the church also has a list of dos and don'ts that make you a good or bad Christian. You must have a quiet time everyday and you should "want" to read your Bible and pray, which don't get me wrong are great things, but can be chains if they become the meter by which we measure and judge ourselves by. It's very easy to slip into the (legalistic) thinking that God is pleased and close when I read my Bible a lot, but if I miss a day or heaven forbid a week then God is displeased with me and far away. God is pleased with me only if I am serving. . . or have the right attitude. . . or give a lot in the offering plate. . . These along with so many others are chains that we have put on ourselves. These along with all the chains the world tries to put on us keep us from the freedom and abundant life that God calls us to. As Romans 8:1 says "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." You see we are no longer condemned when we are in Christ, but rather we experience freedom. Just as 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that "Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom." Freedom. Freedom as in there are no chains. Freedom in that we get to have abundant life in Christ. Freedom in that we don't live by what the world says about us but that we are free to live in who God created us to be. Freedom in that we can move and serve and love in the way that he leads us. There is not one 4x4 box that says Christian that we all have to fit into. God created us all differently and that's ok, it's actually good... very good as God says in Genesis. However, we often pick back up those chains that Christ freed from, and then when we're tired and look at God saying we can't do it anymore He lovingly looks at us and says why are you holding on to those chains that I already freed you from. It's as if a bird that was set free and could experience the world flew back into the cage, closed the door, and then was sad that it was inside the cage when it put itself there. No one is stopping us from the abundant life that God has for us and calls us to, but often we stop ourselves- whether because of previous hurts or being scared to go outside our comfort zone of a 4x4 box. So as I sat here in Starbucks reflecting on this thought while watching this young boy, and my prayer is that he knows God. That God makes his presence and his love so real in this young boys life that he doesn't live in the chains people try to put on him, but that he can live in the freedom and abundant life of Christ. This is my prayer for us all. That we may be a people who are transformed by Christ and know his love and freedom in a real way in our lives. That we don't put our chains back on that Christ frees us from, but that we walk in His love. . . Free. . .

"The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, BUT I have come that they may have LIFE and have it ABUNDANTLY."

-John 10:10

"Now the Lord is Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty."

-2 Corinthians 3:17