Pictures of Egypt

The song by Sara Groves, Painting Pictures of Egypt has been in my head a lot.  I thought it was kind of starange sense I hadn't listened to it in quite a while. I just love the honesty of her songs though, so beautiful and makes it so easy to connect to them.
Sara Groves - Lyrics - Painting Pictures of Egypt
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/painting-pictures-of-egypt/id192672967?i=192673190&uo=4

Makeovers © 2010

I have also been ready Isaiah 52 this week. It has been one of those times when you open a scripture and you can just feel that God is going to do something crazy with you through it but you just don't have any idea yet. I am so excited to find out what he is leading me to though! After reading it the first thing I thought about was this song after having it pop in my head at random (or not so randomly ;) ) frequently throughout last week. The parallels between the song and the scripture are undeniable to me. Both speak of leaving the captivity of Egypt. Along with captivity in general.

As I sat more with my thoughts I have been thinking about sanctification and how it applies to this. I think about slowly breaking free one chain at a time. It seems that once I feel free God like to point out a new place that I comfortably sit in my slavery afraid to move forward. "Look Carliann, why are you holding onto that chain? Can't you see it is hurting you?"

I tend to respond with how much I enjoy its company, the reasons I don't want to leave it, and proof of some past hurt of why I shouldn't let it go. I tend to make excuses like in Sara Groves work about how things were better before. I find myself saying "at least I had this or that before, at least I felt secure about, at least I knew, etc." I find it hard to make the decision to make the rough choice and move forward.

I think it is interesting as well that in Isaiah 52 ends with a prophesy of the crucifixion. I think of how thankful I am to Jesus providing the ultimate example of taking the narrow and hardest road towards freedom for us. The imagery is so vivid in verse 14;
But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.

If He faced so much suffering for my freedom, how much is it for me to face some suffering for moving toward the freedom He is calling me to?

I know there is still a ton I have to learn from this passage still, but I thought I would share it with you. I would love to hear from you about how you might struggle with similar things. I hope this was encouraging to you.