Shackles
There is a song I really like, with a chorus that says, “Take
the shackles off my feet so I can dance.” I was thinking about that song a few
weeks ago. The cry of this song is, “I want to dance. God, I hear the music,
and I want to do dance, but I have these shackles. Would you take the shackles
off so I can dance?
The goal is the dance. The goal is not to have the shackles
removed. That is just the necessary step to become free enough to dance.
Interesting thing about shackles, they are portable. Shackles
are the chains that connect the feet. They don’t keep you confined, but they
limit your movement. I was thinking that, for some people, shackles are an
improvement. Imagine someone in maximum security prison, solitary confinement,
only allowed to leave his cell once a day, locked up for 23 hours every day,
never leaving a small area. One day, he has to go to court, so the guard
unlocks his cell and escorts him out, but he puts shackles on his feet. The prisoner is then taken out of the prison,
into fresh air, is able to see the sun, able to ride in a car, walk in a
hallway, see new faces, hear the sounds of the city. This must feel like freedom,
but, then he is wearing shackles. He
can walk, but his feet are chained together, so he cant get too far, and he
cant dance. He is a little bit free, but no totally. He is not completely free and he knows it.
I believe that many Christians are like those prisoners, out
of prison, experiencing some freedom, but still walking around in shackles, and
unable to dance.
The vision for CR is that we all need to be dancing. We want
to help remove shackles so we can dance.
I want to love the Lord with abandon, to follow him without
holding back anything, to live a life that is full, abundant, joyful, radical,
with whimsy and fun, also purposeful and productive. I want that kind of life for all of us. I
want to see us all free. Free from any and every kind of shackle. Free from
addiction, alcoholism, depression, worry, fears, anxiety, phobias…free from
boredom, free from legalism, free from passivity, free from humdrum, freely living
that life of joyful abundance.
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