Sometimes Chapel Makes You Think

I sit in chapel with the word "Sold" plastered on my shirt and yet I sing, "my chains are gone, I've been set free, My God my Savior has ransomed me." I realize that although my God has ransomed me from the curse of my sins, and I in no way wish to belittle the awesome nature of that redemptive act, I had never been chained; literally chained the way Maya had.

Maya, the girl whose story my shirt represents, was sold by her mother and taken across the border of Myanmar to Thailand and was forced to sell flowers from 9pm to 6am every day.

She was eight years old.

I was struck by this incongruity: I could joyfully sing "My chains are gone I've been set free," yet children like Maya are sold every day and forced into lives of slavery--chained.

As I looked around me I saw other participants of the campaign singing with hands lifted, totally immersed in this act of worship, proclaiming their own freedom in Christ. Yet their shirts screamed: "Forced," "Threatened," "Indebted," "Seduced," "Deceived,". Each shirt represented another child who had been trafficked into slavery.

I stood feeling completely overwhelmed when the next lines of the chorus hit me in a new way: "And like a flood, his mercy reigns; unending love, amazing grace."

I suddenly realized in a fresh and deeply meaningful way that because we have been set free in Christ, we can work as God's agents, carrying forth his mercy, love, and grace in this tragically fallen world. What I had thought was an irrevocable incongruity was just another example of the totally incomprehensible nature of God's plan.

I am set free, my chains are gone, and I can sing of God's wondrous love for all eternity. But God's freedom is so much richer than that. I can not only sing of God's mercy, unending love, and amazing grace; I can bring God's mercy, love, grace, and freedom to those who are still chained spiritually and physically.

Those 200 shirts that I saw in chapel were no longer a sobering statement of the horrors of the world, but an inspiring picture of Christ-followers whose freedom allows them to take part in something beyond themselves: a campaign that will bring freedom to children around the world so that they too can sing, "my chains are gone; I've been set free."

It was an honor to work with Rebecca Coover and members of WCF to plan this campaign, and I have never felt so encouraged and inspired as I did on March 4th, when I walked around campus and saw all of the shirts, and watched people approach total strangers to acquire signatures.

As a senior I have learned that Messiah College does an unbelievable job of educating students about global issues. From my experience it appears that Messiah College is a very socially aware campus, yet we are seldom given the opportunity to act in tangible ways. Let's face it: we are college students who don't have money to give, and we don't have lots of extra time or resources.

It is incredibly frustrating to hear about all the wrongs in the world and feel like you can do absolutely nothing about it. This campaign gave students the opportunity to use the one thing they do have: their voice.

Students were able to lend their support in a tangible way to sign a petition for a bill that could save the lives of children around the world who we probably will never meet. I was completely overwhelmed by the students' responses and I want to say a huge "Thank you" to everyone who participated.

It is my prayer that this was not just a trendy thing to do for the day, but that activism will take root at Messiah College and make a lasting impact on the world. We have the incredible blessing of being freed from our chains. How will we help free others?