Slaves

The imagery of dark-skinned Africans bound hand and foot by iron chains, shepherded into big wooden ships by their pale-complexioned captors, taken to distant lands as merchandise sold to the highest bidders, put to hard labor against their will without any compensation, and suffering abuse and injustice from cruel task masters may be a long-forgotten visual aid of the atrocious nature of human slavery, but the essence of it has lost none of its potency.

We may not all be bound by chains, but we are all bound by something, whether we admit it or not. We are all tied to at least one thing that we either refuse to let go of, or another that refuses to let go of us. We may live in a day and age where blatant enslavement seems to be a thing of the past, but we are in fact living in a world where slavery -- in its so many varied forms -- is still in full swing.

Cha-ching!

Some of us are bound hand and foot by the chains of financial and material pursuits. We gain the whole world -- its glitz, its luxury, its currencies -- in exchange for our precious souls; in exchange for precious time; in exchange for precious life; in exchange for precious people. We work, toil, labor to get our hands on hard-earned money. Our eyes light up like a child's on Christmas morning when we behold the almighty dollar (or peso... or whatever currency you're running with these days)! Slavery!

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Some of us are bound hand and foot by the chains of popularity, fame and reputation. We try to keep up with the Joneses (or the Kardashians, whichever you prefer) just to have a semblance of a life in high society. We play catch up with the hottest trends on social media, try to do the latest online challenges, make sure our marriage proposals are on YouTube, and ride on the current wave of Internet-breaking tweets just so we could be considered in vogue. Strike a pose, there's nothing to it! Slavery!

Stupid Cupid!

Some of us are bound hand and foot by the chains of unhealthy (really: toxic) relationships! We fawn over and fall in love with the idea of falling in love; crave it so much that we lower any relationship standard we may still have left (if there were any to begin with); and settle for the next fool -- a gorgeous guy or a voluptuous vixen of a fool -- who walks into our lives with two, chubby Cupids floating about their shoulders! And then never mind that the other party treats us like we're not worthy of basic human dignity or respect; just as long as we are "in a relationship"! #RelationshipGoals, right? Heck, we'd even take "complicated" just as long as we have "someone special"(?) in our lives. Again, never mind having the same goals in life or heading in the same direction emotionally or spiritually speaking! "Naa na ko'y uyab! Ay pag buot!" ("I'm in a relationship now! Mind your own business.") Stupid 'love'! Slavery!

Rear View

Some of us are bound hand and foot by the chains of the past! We relish it. Relive it. Rehearse it. Replay it (in digital high-definition resolution, whenever possible)! We scrutinize every detail of every mistake we've ever made. We pore over every hurtful word spoken to us by every hurtful person once associated with us. We recycle the tears we once shed and review the pain we once felt. We just can't seem to let bygones be bygones... because we swear to ourselves that we don't love the drama... IT LOVES US! Yeah, right! We actually even feel justified doing all these recollections. "You have no idea the hurt they've caused me!" "If they hadn't done this (fill in with your own horrid past experience) my life would have been better (fill in with your own imagination of a scar-free life)." Hey, let's take a hint (a blatant one) from Elsa: LET IT GO! We'll never move forward in a straight fashion or in safety with our eyes glued to the rear view mirror! Slavery!

Entanglements

Many of us are bound hand and foot by the chains of sin... because in all honesty, we still love it... even though it's killing our souls to death ('cause that's how it works). We wallow in it. We feel sorry for it. We confess (shallow, oftentimes insincere) 'repentance' for it. We rinse. We. Then. Repeat. The sad thing about it is this: provision for escape from the clutches of transgression and iniquity has already been provided... we, many times, do not take it! We are held hostage by malice, mischief, murderous intent, maniacal machinations, mundane insanities, malevolent conceptions, and meaningless chatter. They entangle us: body, soul and spirit. We choose to serve this wrong master quite a lot, in exchange for the fleeting and the destructive. Bound, and cannot move. Bound for an eternity of... Slavery!

Liberty

There is, however, one form of slavery that doesn't suck the life out of us... but instead gives us an abundance of it. It's a slavery to righteousness. It's one wherein we are bound to what is good and just and fair and pure. It's one wherein our Master sets us free from all other forms of slavery... and entangles us in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We could definitely embrace this kind of enslavement and run away with it because the only things that bind our hands and feet are chains of freedom and healing. We may get bound, but we get bound to the Life Giver. We get bound to mercy and goodness... once they catch up with us. In this kind of slavery, we are bound for an everlasting life of gazing at the face of a beautiful Liberator, Who purchased our freedom with His very own life.

End slavery now!

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"But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin... you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action)... since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life."

-- portions of Romans chapter 6; verse 15, 16, 22 Amplified Bible Classic Edition