Breaking Chains

Ever had one of those moments where a song you've heard sung over and over takes on a whole new meaning because of an experience you've had?  Yesterday was one such moment for me.

Dirty. Grease covered. Sore. Blistered.  This was the condition of my hands after yesterday's work.  What was I doing?  Breaking chains...

Now before you think it was some deeply spiritual work, allow me to show you a picture.  This is a chain breaker, well that, and my poor discolored hand.

As it turns out, breaking chains is no easy task, at least not with this little tool.  Nonetheless, it was the task I found myself doing for much of the day - breaking chain, scrubbing it with a brush full of sharp bristles to get the worst of the grease off, and then scrubbing it in paint thinner that sent my head soaring in the clouds, or at least a cloud of fumes!

And why am I breaking chains, you might ask?  Well, more info will be coming on that soon, but the pieces are needed for some products we are in the process of making (the suspense is killer)!

Now that I'm off track, let me turn this back to my original point - breaking chains... this is some tough work.  It's difficult to get the chain to lay just right in the ridge of the breaker.  It's a killer workout for the forearms to get the piece turning that essentially "unscrews" the pin holding the chain pieces together.  And it is some dirty work.  After a day of breaking chains, my fingers were completely black and even after a shower and washing my hands with paint thinner and lots of soap and water, there is still grease and residue lingering.

Sitting there on the floor of the shop with this bag of old bicycle chains and my chain breaker, it's fitting that the song running through my mind was "Break Every Chain" by Kim Walker-Smith.  You know, the one that talks about "there is power in the name of Jesus, to break every chain, break every chain, break every chain."  Hang on, because here comes the deeply spiritual part...

Breaking chains is a painfully long process.

How true that is.  I now know from experience that physically breaking apart bicycle chains is no simple task.  But as my mind replayed the lyrics of that worship song, I began to think through and pick apart what it looks like to have "chains" in our life that hold us captive.  Maybe it's fears.  Maybe it's lies we've bought into.  Maybe it's insecurities.  Maybe it's sin.  We all have them - chains... tied to us, holding us back, weighing us down, painstakingly difficult to break away from.  It takes work.  It takes time.  It takes muscle.  And once the chain is broken, there is residue of the struggle it was to break it apart.

Nine years ago, I was at a point of really wrestling through calling and how the Lord was leading my life, passions He was stirring, burdens He was growing.  Out of that season of wrestling and questioning, the Lord led me to the following passage...

"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand.  I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness" (Isaiah 42:6-7).

In those moments that followed seeing and reading that passage, I began to pray to the Lord, asking Him to let my life be about speaking value, worth, compassion, care, and deep love into others, breaking them free of the darkness of hopelessness, feeling forgotten, unloved, or unworthy.  I deeply desire for people to know their worth and to fight to keep it - leaning fully on God's Word and who He says we are... His sons and daughters!  It's a picture to me of breaking free - breaking chains that hold captive.

But if there is one thing I know, it is no easy task.  It will be tough to dive into the lives of others, to unearth the hurt, the brokenness, the darkness and despair that lingers.  It will take time to walk alongside, to love and care daily, minute by minute.  It will get messy, filthy even.  And even when the chains are broken... then comes the scrubbing, the bristles, the need to wash away the rest of the grime that once helped hold the chain together.  Painstakingly long, that's what the process is.

And yet, when the pieces are broken apart, when they're cleaned and no longer covered in grease and grime, well, that's about the time those pieces can be used to make something new, something truly beautiful.