The Prisoners

Chapter 3. UNGLUED.

This chapter begins telling you about Lysa’s friend who had to go to prison and the labels that would leave on that friends life.

Labels

Labels are awful. They imprison us in categories that are hard to escape.  We may not have an inmate number label but we still label ourselves. Labels only stick if we let them.

Those labels start out as little threads of self-dissatisfaction but ultimately weave together into a straightjacket of self-condemnation.

Some prisons don’t require bars to keep people locked inside. All it takes is their perception that they belong there. How many times have you told yourself you will always be late, be unorganized, or negative? We know we have issues and we commonly label ourselves, but there has to be another way.

The Unfinished Sculpture

David… the sculpture by Michelangelo; Lysa went to see this masterpiece only to find he wasn’t the first one to start the sculpture. Many had tried for years to complete this project and could not. 25 years later Michelangelo took up the challenge. He never left the marble; he slept beside it for more than two years. After the David was finished he quoted…

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free……. It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.

When Lysa went to see the David she was drawn to the previous tries that they called The Prisoners. These statues were all of us… unfinished works of art locked away in a hard place. She looked at the finished nearly perfect product and spoke to God.

Oh God, chisel me. I don’t want to be locked in my hard places forever.

It is beautiful when our Master chisels. God doesn’t allow the unglued moments of our lives to happen so we’ll label  ourselves and stay stuck. He allows the unglued moments to make us aware of the chiseling that needs to be done. Let God Chisel.

Refuse Labels of the Past

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Remember Peter from my last post FREEDOM FOR THE UNGLUED; Peter’s name was changed to match who he would be.  Jesus saw past his shifty ways to the courageous man who needed chiseling.  Jesus saw Peter not as he was but as he could be. Later in Acts, we can see evidence of the chiseled Peter. He’s bold, assured, prepared to do the work the Master created him to do.  (Acts 2:14, 40-41)

The new chiseled Peter led three thousand people to the Lord in one day!

Call it grace

Are you ready to see yourself as God’s workmanship and do the work you’ve been called to do?

1. Identify the lane as a lie meant to tear you down.
2. Chose to view this circumstance as a call to action, not a call to beat myself up.
3. Use the momentum of tackling one label to help you tackle more.

Grace. You will see it. You will feel it. You will call it grace.

Lysa’s friend made the choice that put her in prison, but it was God who freed her in the midst of that place. She was used and freed from bondage she didn’t even know she had.