Freedom from the List
On May 6, 2013 Amanda Berry, an Ohio woman held captive for ten years, found freedom. Amanda and two other women had been abducted, starved, beaten, and raped year after year. But one night, Amanda found the courage to scream for help and was able to call 9-1-1 saying, “I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been here for ten years. And I’m here, I’m free now.”
Why does this story captivate? It’s a miracle. It inspires hope that whatever nightmare we are living will end one day. Thank God most of us cannot relate to the kind of bondage and torture these women endured.
Yet isn’t there another type of bondage and captivity? One no one knows about? There are no Amber alerts sounded, no vigils held, no search and rescue teams issued. It’s a bondage that comes on slowly, sneaks in quietly, and goes on gradually until one day, you realize you are suffocating.
I don’t know exactly when I realized I was dying. I had thought living by a list of do’s and don’ts would make me acceptable and pleasing to God. I thought list living would lead to the abundant life I longed for.
Instead, I found every “do” or “don’t” added another link to my chains, and the weight of it all kept me imprisoned in fear and darkness. None of my efforts brought me peace, joy, contentment, or abundant life.
Like Adam and Eve I had believed the lie, “If you do this, then you will be like God.”
When I was keeping the list it made me prideful. “Look how good I am.” It also made me judgmental of those who weren’t keeping my list. “They’re not good Christians.” When I failed to keep the list, I felt shame and condemnation. I beat myself up. Neither of these responses is healthy! I needed freedom from the list.
The “killer list” included lots of good things.
Do:
- Say the sinner’s prayer
- Get baptized
- Go to church every time the doors are open: Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, revivals, retreats, and Bible studies
- Tithe 10 percent
- Give an offering above your 10 percent tithe
- Read your Bible every day
- Memorize Scripture
- Pray every day. Start with praise, then thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and finally, pray for yourself
- Witness to others: knock on doors, pass out tracts, visit the jails, stand on the streets, and explain the “Romans Road”
- Teach children, youth, and women
- Volunteer in the nursery
(Are you tired of reading this? Imagine how tired I was living it! Yet the list goes on!)
- Serve in church leadership
- Lead a home group
- Host church events
- Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith
- Visit the sick and the widows
- Care for the orphans
- Be filled with the Spirit by speaking in tongues
Don’t:
- Have sex outside of marriage
- Drink alcohol
- Smoke
- Cuss
- Be a stumbling block
- Hang out with people who can pull you down
- Do drugs
- Dance
- Listen to secular music or watch TV or movies
- Wear makeup, cut your hair, or wear pants
- Be unequally yoked with an unbeliever
- Steal, lie, cheat, overeat, gossip, envy, boast
It took me a long time to realize God didn’t need or want my “good” works or my list living. I could have freedom from the list. But, like the crowd in John 6:28, we think it sounds noble to say, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we DO?” (NLT).
Are we willing to accept Jesus’s response? “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent” (John 6:29 NLT).
Wait! What? No list? No doing? Only believe? That’s right, folks! No list! Because if we walk by the Spirit, we don’t need a list! We can have freedom from the list!
If I were to have a checklist today (because am still drawn to them), it might look like this:
- Enjoy God
- Enjoy life
- Rest in his love
- Receive life, forgiveness, peace, joy, comfort, and correction
- Abide in Christ
- Give thanks
- Trust his timing and his way
- Walk in love
- Obey the Spirit’s promptings
- Be still
- Cease striving
- Remember God’s faithfulness
- Believe
Galatians 5:1 reminds us, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (NASB).
I’m here. I’m free now.
is a Kentucky native. She has been married to her husband, Eric, for 28 years. They have two adult children, Megan and Sam, as well as two fur babies, Lucy and Shoshanna. Some of Amy’s favorite things include 80’s music, hot baths, and a clean house. She also enjoys traveling, walking her dogs, spending time with her kids, organizing and decorating homes, and hosting get-togethers and game nights for friends.
Photograph © Aaron Burden, used with permission
