You Have My Attention: 6 Days of Creating Space for God to Move in Your LifeSample

Bless The One

Burden. 

There’s weight to that word. A physical burden makes us slump our shoulders, walk with a limp, or maybe even collapse under the pressure of the thing we are trying to carry. A spiritual burden, on the other hand, doesn’t just make us slump or collapse… it sabotages our souls and takes us captive. It locks us up in our own minds and memories, not allowing us to fully be who we were created to be. How do we find our way out of this spiritual prison? How do we find the key to the lock that is keeping us trapped inside?

When we look at calvary we see a man who knew what burden was. He saw the physical weight of the cross he would have to carry but he also saw the spiritual burden of being separated, for the first time ever, from his Father. He held that tension in his heart, longing for something else but knowing that this was the price he would have to pay to take the keys to the spiritual prison his beloved ones were locked in. He had the choice to back out, the choice to say no. But he decided that nothing would stop him from setting us free - from unlocking us from that spiritual prison we’d trapped ourselves in. 

Now even though I’ve never been physically locked up in a dungeon, try to imagine what it’s like… You are locked in a dark, damp, and dreary room for years with no hope of getting out. Your eyes have adjusted to the dark, your skin is dry and itchy from years without exposure to the elements and your hair is matted down into unrecognizable clumps on your head and you’ve given up all hope of ever being rescued. Your life is just survival. Day after day. Nothing to look forward to.

Then, unexpectedly the door opens and someone stands before you. He unlocks your shackles, he helps you to your feet, and he says, “You are free.” Immediately you see the world in a different way. The simple sight of sunshine or a breath of fresh air, it all overwhelms you now in the best way.

Your heart erupts, you breathe deep and shout aloud, “Thank you!”. It’s the natural response from the depths of your heart.

Isaiah 42:7 speaks of this very thing when Isaiah prophesies what the messiah will do… it says, “to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house.” 

That is exactly what Jesus, our savior, did for us on Calvary.  

The song “Bless The One” is my “prison set free moment”. An anthem, a declaration that though Jesus knew the weight he would have to bear to set his people free  - he still chose to do it. He chose to carry the burden of being separated from us. So our hearts erupt in thanksgiving and gratitude toward the savior who rescued us from the dungeon we were living in. 

- Mack