On Friday night, my hubby & I (finally) sat down to watch the movie Amazing Grace.

And after watching the movie, we watched the video of Chris Tomlin singing Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone). Having watched the two back to back, I don't think I'll ever listen to the song in the same way again!

In the movie there's a scene where a group of abolitionists shows William Wilberforce how people were treated on the slave ships between Africa and the Americas. Thomas Clarkson pulls out a set of shackles and shows how the slaves were shackled at their feet, hands and necks, and then forced to remain into a space 4 feet long by 18 inches wide. That small space quickly filled with blood and waste, yet they remained chained there for the full 2-3 week Atlantic crossing.

Chris Tomlin sings, "My chains are gone. I've been set free...."

I'm still moved to tears thinking about this. I was once enslaved to sin, shackled by such chains and kept confined in my own filth. How many people do I know who believe they are free but are blinded to the chains that keep them from experiencing the true, amazing freedom of God's grace?! And, oh, how Jesus longs to abolish sin's slave trade on this earth forever!

... And how can I behave as an abolitionist myself?