Focus

As you quiet yourself for this brief time, be willing to be open to God in whatever way that may take place.

Read

Reflect

I was studying one day and found out that the word religion means “Return to bondage.” That scared me a bit and I didn’t think that was the greatest picture of such a beautiful word, but as I thought about it, I think that it is absolutely a great idea. How is it that Jesus speaks of “being set free?”

Well here is a mental image that might help. I will take myself for example, before I was married to my wife, I pretty much did whatever I wanted to do. I drank too much, smoked too much, and while I had everything in control, I wasn’t advancing in life. Also, I was preoccupied with things that were killing me, like smoking and drinking. I wasn’t an alcoholic, but I didn’t have anything else to do. All my friends drank, and that’s just what we did.

When I met my wife, my life didn’t change so much as it took on a better direction. When we got married, I also became an instant dad. Loads of responsibility there. Now I didn’t belong to myself. I was now in bondage, but I have flourished. I love being a husband, I love being a father, and I have developed in new ways. Marriage and family are a type of bondage, but it’s a bondage where you become all that you can be.

So I guess religion is like marriage. If it is a bad one, it feels like the “ole ball and chain.” If it is a good one, it’s like that Jerry McGuire movie, “You complete me.” Jesus offers us a relationship in which we can become all God has created us to be and in a relationship with him, we find freedom.

Pray

God, Let me be bound close to you in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Go with God.