Too often we sit bound in restraints that are only slipknots, from which we have the capability to free ourselves.
“The Devil Wears Prada” is one of my favorite movies. I love one of the last scenes of the movie, when characters, Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) are having their last conversation while being chauffeured from the airport in the Mercedes Benz … Miranda made an assumption about Andy that at that moment Andy decided did not and would not define her and she simply walked away. No parting words were spoken, there was no reply, no apology, no notice given, she simply walked away. With every liberating step she took, tossing her incessantly ringing cell phone into the bubbling fountain, she never looked back … she broke the chains.
I was inspired to write this blog sometime ago (June 2013 to be exact), but it has taken some time to publish it from the proper perspective. It had to come from a healthy place in me so that it would heal and edify, not convict or cast down.
I love it when I can share out of a genuine experience, it is so much more authentic and carries so much more value, than sharing something you have heard, read, or witnessed of another. For so long I was bound by my own insecurities that I blamed on others, literally for years. It was the powerful ministry of God’s Word that opened my eyes, my heart, my ears, my understanding to realize it was me who held the tools to cut and severe the bondage … to demolish the chains.
It was in 2006 that I saw that movie in the theatre, I was in a place emotionally where I was all bottled up, bound up, caged up, shut down, praying to God for the cloud to lift, the dam to break, and it did – a little.
Our emotions can work for us or against us. As women, we are these beautiful, complex beings … every part of our makeup rocks and reels our existence. Our emotions get the best of us in inconspicuous ways. We become bound by our emotions. The spectrum is an ever-spiraling vacuum, sensitivity, pride, self-preservation. Then we act out, throwing tantrums and pouting. It shows in our disposition, interactions, and behaviors.
Today’s Deborahs, Esthers, Ruths, Marys and Marthas, women of purpose, gifting and promise (that’s you and I!), who are capable of fulfilling God’s call, are confounded by emotional yokes, shackles and chains. We become slaves to our emotions. We are infirmed by insecurities, dysfunction, fear, false commitment, indifference, position power, entitlement, intimidation and manipulation, damaged relationships … Then spiritual decay sets in, atrophy, carnality, and even apostasy, unless we take ownership of it, surrender and release it all to God.
It was also in 2006 that I sat under the teaching of my mentor that lead to further breaking of the chains. In her no-nonsense manner she exclaimed, “Stop throwing temper tantrums.” Yes, to an audience of adult, sanctified and holy, learned, some leaders, some ministers, women in a church seminar, that was her declarative instruction. She continued, “learn to manage your emotions, eliminate friendly fire, own your own stuff, confront your own fears, exercise maturity, don’t submit to temper tantrums.”
The process begins with being responsible for ourselves. First, demolish pride, own our insecurities and perecptions, and confess them to God. Confession TO GOD is so cleansing. Not when we confess about another person, but about ourselves, me! God it is ME! Then we are broken, not so much in pieces, but to a weakened, vulnerable state where it is the strength of God and not our pride that holds us up. In that place of vulnerability to God, we can surrender and release our helpless selves to Him, then we can be forever healed to experience and enjoy new beginnings.
