50 Shades of Grace

Bondage is gone. I admit it was good. The temporary pleasure of letting another take control, letting my mind lose itself and doing what felt good. Now my arms are no longer pinned down. I no longer worry about possessions that were never really mine any way. Bills are paid. No man has my full attention. My thinking is free. Truth is none of us are black or white. Everyone is a shade of grey. We fight the battle daily to go with flesh or Spirit. Do what feels good at the moment or suffer the wait to see what’ll happen? Ignore the opportunity to do something good for someone in crazed hurriedness of today’s world or stop and meditate on Word ready to receive the sweet whispered instruction on how to bring one more smile to the globe? Both sides of the equation require submission but who is the master you chose? You can only have one. The world only focuses only on the bondage in this popular book made movie. However, the real challenge is there inside the original text; the movie is just a sexy commercial. In the pages of 50 Shades of Grey, Anna’s mind is exposed much more than her body. So many of us have been there. We let the overwhelming temporary high take us to places we may regret later. We think we are making the choices but really we are being driven by attractive things outside ourselves. And we may even have scars to show it. I admit it was more than annoying to read the main character’s self-pity, her self-doubt, her questions demanding approval from a stranger and her lack of confidence. However, if I were to be honest, I’d see it was so annoying because I hated that part of myself anytime it tried to manifest in my mind. I’m so grateful to God for the day He showed me the road I was walking with him had a crossroad. I could go fully down that off-beat path and lose myself to a seductive world of what pleased me. It would have taken me to lots of places I may have enjoyed but it would have been lots of places. Roaming from one to another would have been the only way I could keep the high of that lifestyle fresh. Or I could do what I did, return back to the split where God was left while I thought I was having the “time of my life.” I’ll never forget asking him what he was doing there and He showed me how He was piecing together the parts of my broken heart. Without any focus on those pieces I was able to run free, untethered from my one true love, Jesus. Sure, His road forward is narrow and challenging. It calls me to do things I never thought I could do. It asks me to stand out against the grain of everything that brushes against it. But the line must be drawn. A bright light lies ahead and I’m better for staying within His boundaries that I have to believe lead to an unknown glorious future. “If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave. Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. I didn’t receive it through the traditions, and I wasn’t taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:12 MSG Jesus isn’t shy about the contract He wants me to sign. He even said it would be a bondage. He said I’d be yoked to him. My hands would be surrendered in worship and I wouldn’t be able to touch him. I’d have to believe He was there, in control, had my best interest and allow myself to be bound to His Heavenly union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I marvel at being wrapped up in that triune knot of wonder. This is my place and I kneel at it gracefully. I await what Jesus has for me. After all, He bore the stripping, the whips, the flogging, the pressing crown of thorns, the judgment of sin, the name calling, the false accusations, the piercing nails and suffocating breath. I have to believe whatever pain I think I’m going through is actually already overcome. I’m no longer a slave to sin. I am a Child of God, exposed and vulnerable only to His Spirit. His Grace and Mercy have set me apart and within the only unity I was called and designed for.