Slavery

The chains are heavy, the bracelets tight.

Bound, chained, shackled, constrained.

This is all she knows, this is all she’s ever known.

Slavery.

Bondage.

It consumes her, the chains, the burden. For she is not her own, but promised to another. The chains signify her possession, her ownership. Slavery is all she knows, slavery is how she lives.

She is pulled here and there, led by the hand of the one who grasps her bonds. Chains do not push, they only pull. Dragged from place to place, led into each situation, forced to follow the will of another.

Her hands and feet are bloodied by her struggle against the bonds. Cuts and scrapes mark her resistance, but the binds hold strong, her battle is in vain.

And so she resigns herself to her fate. The chains are here to stay, the bondage is her own.

Faintly she hears a whisper, a voice on the wind, or maybe a voice somewhere deep within herself.

You are free

Straining she tries to make out the words. They can’t be what she thinks. That isn’t possible. She dismisses the hope that threatens to swell within her. The binds tighten; the chains jerk her back to reality.

Later the same voice, the same words, but louder, persistent.

You are free

She need not strain this time, she hears the words clearly. Disbelief and doubt crowd out whatever hope could grow from those words. She still feels the chains, the shackles, the words are a lie.

Again they come, louder and quicker with urgency and strength.

You are free

YOU are free

You are FREE

YOU ARE FREE

Crying now she pleads that the words could be true. Where once a blackness of resignation existed the flicker of hope sparks. Could it be true? Could it be real? Is it even possible?

But that spark is quickly extinguished as she once again feels the weight of the chains, the pull of the one who holds them, the pain of the struggles, and the grief of the realization that she is still a slave.

The voice comes again. Quiet, caring, calling from the depths of her heart.

Look

Confusion sets in. Look? she asks herself. To see the chains, to be reminded of her bondage, to see the scars, the pain, the reality. What an evil thought, what a careless request.

Again the voice.

Look

Without hope, in quiet desperation she allows her eyes to lower, to glimpse the chains.

With disbelief and shock she realizes there are no chains, there are no shackles. Only scars remain, dulled by time, a remnant of what once was there.

But freedom isn’t found in a lack of chains. For she was bound just as tightly, she was burdened just as greatly without the shackles. Even though the iron had long left her hands and feet, the weight remained.

Again the voice comes, this time gentle and leading.

You are free

Can words be enough? Can it be true? For the first time she lets hope grow, overwhelming her, opening her eyes, her heart. The truth overwhelms her.

She had chosen slavery; she had willfully allowed herself to follow the same path she had trudged for so long. Freedom had been hers to claim for so long and yet she had chosen to return to the bondage. She was a slave to sin, putting the chains on herself. Allowing herself to be in bondage to the very thing she hated. She returned to her first love forsaking the One who freed her from those bonds in the first place. She was free, able to choose whom she will serve, and yet she found herself turning from the throne of grace and the path of righteousness to return to the filth of what she once was. Choosing slavery to sin for so long that she forgot freedom was already hers. She was a slave to the one who has no power over her, a slave to self, to sin.

She is free.

She has been free.

All she has to do is claim it.

And now she follows another, choosing to give her life, to find in Him a new freedom.

She chooses the life of a slave, of a servant, binding herself to Him, choosing to return to the role of a servant even though she has been set free.

She is a servant by choice not by constraint.

She is free, free in Him.




It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1