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In the beloved Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol, the spirit of Scrooge’s dead partner, Jacob Marley, pays a midnight visit to Mr. Scrooge. He’s there to warn his old friend before it’s too late. He wants Ebenezer to realize that he is heading down the wrong path.

The path of working too hard. Of tragically misplaced priorities. The path where there is no room to enjoy God’s beautiful creation or hear His voice. Where there is no room for compassion towards those less fortunate. Of being too busy for what really matters.

Jacob’s spirit appears to Scrooge shackled in chains and misery. A shaken Scrooge speaks to the apparition of his old friend, and asks why he is chained.

“I wear the chain I forged in life! I made it link by link and yard by yard! I gartered it on of my own free will and by my own free will, I wore it!”

Jacob desperately wants his friend to know that every link in the chain was forged by all of the choices he made while he was still alive. And he wants his friend to see the result of those choices now, before his own chain gets any longer. While there is still time.

Before it is too late.

Fast-forwarding 171 years, it looks like nothing much has changed, particularly for those of us with a superhero complex.

SuperGals, we have busily spent years now forging our own shackles. Chains. Bonds.

Every choice we make today is a potential link in the chain. Affecting our own future. And affecting the lives of others.  

If you want to join the ranks of Recovering SuperGalaholics, it’s time to break the chains. The chains of being too controlling. Of taking on too much responsibility for others. Of being too busy.  

The iron shackles of too much pride in ourselves and our achievements. Of self-reliance. The locked links of guilt, fear and resentment. Of negative thoughts. Of envy.

And the bonds of striving ahead under our own SuperPowers. The ones that will eventually fail.

The bonds of our sin. Yep, call it whatever you’d like, but it’s all sin.  

. . .let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us. ~ Hebrews 12:1 (The Amplified Bible)

But how exactly do we do that?

Ask God.

Ask God to remove your chains. To show you all the SuperGal areas of your life where your links grow ever longer. God is waiting to lift these heavy burdens from your shoulders. 

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." ~ Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

Go ahead, ask Him.

Carrying the chains of your past? $$$$$$$

Freedom from your chains? Priceless.