Break the Chain

We all have chains of continuity, passed on through the generations. I have my father’s nose, a Norwegian tribute to the sky. I have my mother’s personality, at times engaging and at other times, annoying.

With my kids I used the same phrases my mother did. “You’re face is going to stay like that.” “In order to have a friend, you need to be a friend.” “If you look for trouble, you’re going to find it.“

I have issues with control, using the same manipulation techniques that were used on me. On the other hand, I love to tease and laugh, following a long family line of jokers.

Your chain is different. You take the good and bad and mix it all up with your own blend. Some people have terrible chains handed to them of alchoholism or abuse. It takes a lifetime of running away from that bondage.

Randy Alcorn writes about chains. He says there are three kinds of chains:

• Chains that come from nature — those human sinful trends that are imbred
• Chains that come from choices — sins we commit ourselves and the consequences that follow
• Chains that come from nurture — hurtful influences that impact us

Photo by David Rupert

I have wanted to break free from certain chains in my personality — traits that choke out intimacy with God and others. So I seek liberation, but too often I settle for mere freedom from the guilt rather than real change.

I have a lifelong friend who is wrapped in the chains of bitterness and unforgiveness. It’s causing her to act out in destructive ways, perhaps hoping to perpetuate guilt in the offending party.

But I’m learning, slowly, that despite every lie I have every heard, Jesus breathes this truth: “I am here to proclaim freedom for the prisoners… to set the oppressed free.”

How have you been set free?