It’s funny how the image of chains keeps coming up to me lately as I’m working on my book. My character is not a prisoner, nor has she ever been in any literal chains. But I suppose she is in a type of bondage — that of grief. Grief can wrap chains around our hearts until we collapse under the weight. Wanda, the fourteen year old character of Shaken is suffering from those types of chains. The death of her sister has left her so angry and sad that her heart is being crushed.
Chris Tomlin sings “Amazing Grace,” inserting a new chorus: “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me.” At a retreat last year, a friend of mine spoke about chains and how God’s amazing grace could set us free from whatever was holding us captive. Grief, addiction, sin, depression, or whatever is keeping us from Him, God has the power (and the will) to free us from those chains.
The old hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” plays an important role in my story. Recently a line jumped out at me in a way it never has before. “Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bing my wandering heart to Thee.” The writer of this hymn was pleading with God to chain his heart so he wouldn’t be tempted to wander off again. The hymn writer, Robert Robinson, knew that this was his struggle. He would draw close to God and then drift away, repeatedly. History (or legend) suggests that Robinson lost this battle and wandered away from the faith later in life. One tale (legend or truth, I don’t know) tells of him being wracked with sadness as a woman quoted the words of the hymn to him, not knowing he was the author. The story says that he broke down and told the woman that he would give everything he had just to feel the way he did when he wrote the hymn.
I find the contradiction of these two songs puzzling. One begs for chains, the other rejoices at them being loosed. It’s clear that God didn’t grant Robinson’s desire for heavenly chains. He grants us free will, but is always calling us to stay close to him.
The original writer of Amazing Grace, John Newton, was a slave trader. God worked a remarkable change in Newton’s life to change him from within and deliver him into a life of ministry. So when he wrote the words, “to save a wretch like me,” he clearly knew the enormity of what God had forgiven.
God is obviously not in the slave trade. He didn’t come to buy slaves and lead us away into heaven in new chains, like Robinson desired. Jesus came to set us free from chains. But accepting that gift and dropping our chains? I guess that’s up to us. Wanda has to struggle with releasing the chains of anger that are keeping her from experiencing God’s love. He understands her grief and wants to share in it with her. But she has to let Him in, first.