Freedom

Since releasing our album Shake Free, I have been really thinking about freedom and bondage. I’ve been looking at my life and searching for distractions from my aim and purpose. I’ve been finding areas of my life that keep me in chains and hold me back. And I’ve found several! The liberation that I’ve found after kicking off the chains is amazing! Yet there are still more. It feels like the layers of an onion. I keep peeling away things that hold me back, and then I find a new area. Each new layer brings more freedom and more joy for living. And while I’ve been working on myself, I’ve also been watching the people around me, and seeing where they are free and where they are captive. I’ve seen people that are mostly unhindered and living a very full and rewarding life. And I’ve seen those that appear so worn down like they are dragging many chains behind them. The weight of it all keeps them from enjoying the very life they are living. But I’ve seen that there isn’t a difference between these two people except that one has many chains and the other doesn’t. It isn’t a problem with the person, but with their chains. And I’ve noticed that most of us have a thing or two that is keeping us from rising up to our full potential. It might be a very heavy log chain, or it may be a very light chain. But releasing those chains can bring about such freedom of movement! I’ve seen those held down by something physical like food or phones. I’ve seen some of us held back by something in our mind. Maybe fear or discontentment. Whatever the case may be, it seems like we all have something chaining us down.

But I noticed something else too, and this part is really good news! Jesus has unlocked all these chains! These chains aren’t locked anymore. Yay! Woohoo!! They’re not locked down. They are not locked on to us. They’re just wrapped around us. It may feel like they are locked, but I have not found a single locked chain. And that means that all you have to do to get them off is to see and find the chain, focus on it and simply reach down and unwrap them. There isn’t a long, drawn-out process to getting the chain off. It is very simple, very easy. I have had the pleasure to watch people notice their chains and just take them off. And their reaction is almost always like- “It was that easy?” And in my life there have so many times that I finally noticed the chains. But instead of just taking them off, I have put it off for a very long time. At the time it seemed so hard. It felt like they were locked on. It seemed like they could never come off. I have put off removing some of my chains for years before because I believed that those were just my chains to bear. But in the end, when I finally decided to take them off, there wasn’t a lock, it was as simple as unwinding the chain. There may be a little pain in unwinding them, after all, some chains have been on for years. The feeling of freedom is worth it though.

But there’s a catch. For some reason we all like to go back to our chains. Why would we ever do that?! It is really easy to take the chains off, but we are so used to being tied down we often go back to what we know. It feels secure when we aren’t able to move very well. And we go back to those chains and tie ourselves back up.

In future posts I want to call out some common chains that I’ve seen people struggling with. Afterall, if someone doesn’t call them out, we may not even see them. As you read through each post, you can take a look at your life and see if that is a chain on your life. Maybe its one that you have already discarded. That’s amazing! Maybe it’s one that just has a few links or is a small, lightweight chain. Now would be a great time to dispose of it before it gets any bigger! Maybe it is a huge chain that prevents you from even walking and you have to crawl on hands and knees to even drag it along. That’s okay too, and today is the day to take that weight off! And I want to help keep all those chains off! This is the start of your journey to more freedom! This is a chance to Shake Free!

-Trey