Chains and Leg Irons

…The man had often been attacked by the demon. And even thought he had been bound with chains and leg irons and kept under guard, he smashed whatever bound him… – Luke 8:29

Sometimes you come across a biblical account or story, that has intense symbolic value, whether it was the authors intention or not. This story in Luke 8:26-39 of a man possessed by a mob of demons, sounds strangely familiar.

Not the demon part. The chains and leg irons part.

I cannot say that I’ve encountered many demon possessed people, but neither can I say that I haven’t found that almost everybody resorts to chains and leg irons to subdue their (and others’) infections. Only to smash whatever it is that binds them, whatever it is that binds me - and then  throw on bigger, better, smarter locks and bolts in the hopes that we will now, finally, get ourselves under control.

As stupidly obvious as it sounds: you will not find freedom in chains.