Encountering an extraordinary God in ordinary life
Issue # 226 August 11, 2001
CHAINS

One of the things I came across when I was packing my workshop for the move was an old block and tackle. I noticed that the chain used to anchor it was hand forged.

My mind drifted back to a blacksmith shop I had recently visited (yes, some of them still exist.) The room was dark and smoky. The heat from the forge was oppressive, yet the smith didn’t seem to notice.

He pulled the hot metal out of the file, laid it on the anvil and began pounding and bending it into shape. He heated it again and repeated the process. Over and over again, with an occasional dunking of the piece into a nearby bucket of water. Finally, that piece was ready and he moved onto the next small part.

While he wasn’t building a chain, I could easily imagine him doing so. Forging it slowly link by heavy link until it got to just the right size.

Charles Dickens had it right when he described old Jacob Marley carrying the chains, forged link by link, through the choices of his lifetime.

We often forge our own chains, our own bondage from the choices we make in life. The weights grow slowly heavier and heavier until they are more than we can bear, more than we can carry, so they drag along behind us, wrapping around other people in our lives.

Our chains tangle with their chains, and we’re all soon completely bound.

Fortunately, God understood our dilemma and provided us a means of freedom. We can’t break those hand forged chains by ourselves, but he has cut them for us.

When we’re feeling oppressed, we need to turn to Him.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NIV

Until next time, may you come to truly understand the freedom that is yours in Christ.

God bless.

Kevin

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