Chains.

So, I'm writing from here at CIY in Grantham, PA.

Yes, I did just see 4 butt naked high schoolers run down the hallway. It's all good.

Gang warfare between our guys and the guys from the other church living on our floor? Yep, seen it... actually, it's happening now. It's all good.

But seriously, it's been a fun, yet intimidating trip. I'm not going with Southwest, but with Madison, my home church in Columbus. We have a very young (and very new) group this year. Being gone from a place for about 8 or 9 months means some new faces and new kids. I haven't been super involved in their lives, so that's sort of intimidating too. I'm leading a D-Group and I have a panic attack about 15 minutes before each session.

It's all good.

But it really has been a good week so far. Greg Frazee is bringing the heat with worship, and speakers have been great. Eric and Nathan are here from CCU, so it's been really good to see them. And I'm hoping that there's a budding romance between myself and an intern from Ozark... good times.

But today's theme focused on the whole enslavement/freedom concept, as illustrated in the book of Exodus in the initial Passover feast. I guess I have just a few things to share from that.

Number one, I think it's really important to observe that the Passover takes place after 430 years of slavery on the part of the Israelites. God had been seemingly absent for a long time. It wasn't that the people weren't crying out... the Bible outlines that they were in the beginning of Exodus. God heard the cries. I have some real doubts and concerns about all of that... why did it take God 430 years? That's a long time to leave people crying out. That really troubles me. But I also concede that God has a unique timing and certainly there was a reason. These people were broken down, but God heard their cry and did something about it.

But secondly, the people were enslaved. This was something difficult. All day, we've been wearing these two wristbands with sins we struggle with written on the undersides of them. Tonight, we were given an extra wristband, and we had to tie together our hands. Literally, the entire 2 hours of the evening session, we were chained by these wristbands.

It was really humbling for me to think that this is what my sin does to me. I've been incredibly blessed in my life to never really struggle with a lot of issues that I've seen destroy other people's lives like porn, masturbation, pre-marital sex, suicide/depression, alcoholism, drug use, etc. I thank God for his mercy and grace with that.

Yet I still sin. My sins carry names like apathy.

Judgment.

Impurity.

Debt.

These are more socially-accepted sins within the confines of the church. I guess that's good in a way, because that means I can talk openly a little easier than can others about their sin, but it's also a bad thing. It's easy to lose the impact that this sin has on me. I go around carrying this sin, never really realizing how much it entangles and ensnares me.

But tonight, I didn't have that option. I couldn't cross my arms. I couldn't fiddle with my shirt or my jeans I was wearing. I couldn't really raise my hands during worship. I couldn't take notes during the sermon. I could barely even open and read my Bible during the sermon.

These "chains;" this enslavement was having a real effect on me. That was the point.

Sin has a real effect on us, even when we don't realize it. In fact, that's probably the scariest part: we don't realize it. Today, I had to come to grips with the humbling realization that even though my sins might not be scandalous or horrible in my eyes, they're still sins. They still affect me. There is a real enslavement happening here.

Of course, through the cross, Christ sets us free. His grace forgives my sin and offers me 2nd, 3rd, and 39,248,098th chances. Yet, I think that it's still important every now and then to observe that we are sinners, and that a man (no, more than a man) had to give his life on my behalf because of them.

In the story of Exodus, when God showed up, he showed up big time. Surely, he has the power to do the same today. Surely, he can still break the chains of apathy, judgement, impurity, and debt that bind me.