Unlock your chains…

October 23, 2023

From the best of Jack’s Winning Words comes this post to the Jack Freed’s blog back in 2020…

“So often times it happens, that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key.”  (The Eagles)  It’s said that the Eagles’ song, Already Gone, has some of the greatest lyrics of all time. It expresses a thought that I’ve found to be true: “Things always work out for the best in the end.” And there’s another truism: “Chains” sometimes keep us from having a better life. The lyrics say that we have the key to a happier life. We don’t have to live in chains. 😉  Jack

What are the “Chains” that keep us from a better life? They are the chains of ignorance, fear, hatred, prejudice and bigotry. While many of them may be handed to us by others – parents or friends – they are things that we wrap around ourselves and allow them to control our actions.

It may not be easy to unlock those chains. Some are deeply ingrained in us. Yet each is a chain that holds us back; that prevents us from really enjoying a happy life. None of them is positive or additive to our lives. They are all negative and serve only to bring us down.

Perhaps the “key” that the song alludes to, which will unlock those chains and set us free is love. Love opens the way to understanding, to acceptance and to forgiveness. But, before you can love others, you must love yourself.  I have posted here in the past about the need to love yourself before you can love others (see https://normsmilfordblog.com/2023/01/18/love-yourself-first/)

Loving yourself allows you to forgive yourself and that loosens many chains and allows them to fall away. You have the key to getting rid of your chains. Use it. Free yourself. Allow yourself to love and to be loved.

If you need a little help using the key, there is a locksmith named Jesus whom you can call upon, no matter how many chains weigh you down. Call upon Him for help and you will feel the weight of those chains slipping away.

Unlock your chains…

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Posted by Norm Werner

You don’t need a key –

October 22, 2020

In today’s post to his blog, Jack’s Winning Words, Pastor Freed used this  lyric  from The Eagles song Already Gone (listen to it here) –

“So often in time it happens, we all live our life in chains,

and we never even know we have the key.”

It’s interesting that the lyrics right before that line provide the insight to understand it –

“Well, I know it wasn’t you who held me down
Heaven knows it wasn’t you who set me free”

Many things in life try to hold us down, to put us in chains and show us no way out; however we always hold the key to release ourselves from whatever it is that may be weighing us down – remorse over a past event or angst over a coming event.

The Eagles song was about a relationship that was ending and it was intended to be a victory song from the point of view of one of the people in that failed relationship. In the song the singer celebrates that he is already over the breakup by stating that he is already gone – gone on with life.

I’ve posted here a few times about getting over things and moving on with life – see my posts What’s Next For You and Are You Moving On?

The point is that you don’t even need a key to break the chains that you think are holding you. Someone else didn’t put those chains on you; you put them on yourself and you can throw them off. Maybe it is as simple as declaring victory as the song lyrics state and telling yourself that you are already gone – that you are already over it and you are moving on.

Sometimes throwing off the chains of guilt or self-doubt can be as simple as uttering the simple little prayer that I’ve used many times here – “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” You will be surprised at the immediate feeling that the weight of the chains that you have imposed upon yourself is lifted from your shoulders when you give your chains to God. You will feel free to move on with life.

Perhaps then, you will feel like singing the lyrics that the Eagles used later in the song –

Cause I’m already gone
And I’m feelin’ strong
I will sing this vict’ry song I’m already gone.

You hold the key to your own happiness – use it and get on with life.

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Posted by Norm Werner