What is holding onto you?

     Such a beautiful quiet, peaceful scene we enjoy each day!  Especially since the horses are not ours.  Neighbors use our pasture, and we get to enjoy the scene without the work.  We were sitting at dinner with some of our granddaughters watching the horses.  All of a sudden Cicily noticed there was a bucket tied to the leg of one horse.  Within 30 seconds of that comment chaos ensued.  The horse started running around the pasture on high alert!  Two rounds and then it raced right through the fence flattening the woven wire and ramming a T-post down flat!  Down the drive and onto the main road the horse barreled!  The bucket came off and cars stopped and the horse finally came to a halt.  Whew!  What an evening!  It is a miracle that the horse wasn't killed or terribly hurt, but wounds and scratches were all that it suffered.  We are beginning to wonder what next week holds for another animal story. 

     This story, though, gave us a picture to ponder.  God has provided us forgiveness from sin through Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Sin made us enemies to God, but His love and grace has brought us near to Him.  He brings peace and works healing in us giving us new life and new desires.  Sometimes, though, we choose our old ways and turn back to things that we think will fulfill us, tying that bucket to our soul.  God's mark for us is pictured in the pasture - beauty, peace, quiet, safety, fulfillment. 

     But we miss His mark when we turn from His ways.  Missing the mark is sin, and it cuts our closeness to our Heavenly Father.  When we allow sin to continue in our lives  until it grabs a firm hold of us, we suffer unimaginable consequences.  Seldom do we think about the cost of sin and the wild driven ride that will force us from that peaceful pasture.  Jesus set us free, and yet we allow ourselves to be tied to sins which cause havoc in our lives. Secret, small, big,  hidden, or open;  any sin held onto is like that bucket tied to your soul; it steals your freedom and joy.  Is the sin of complaining stealing your freedom?  How about savoring a different life?  A grudge you are holding?  Think more seriously about the consequences of holding that sin dear to your heart.  Think about the quiet, shady, peaceful pasture Jesus has provided for you instead.  Let go of that sinful hold which binds you.  I read a quote on my daughter's blackboard that I have been thinking about this week in light of these thoughts:

                  "The good life, the one that truly satisfies, exists only when we stop
                    wanting a better one.  It is the condition of savoring what is, rather
                    than longing for what might be."                         (Chuck Swindoll)
                                                                                                                                                      K.C.