Make a Clean Break! Live!

Having heard a portion of Sonny's Blues read in a meditative way I was able to extract a deeper meaning within the text.
"...watched everything that happened on the avenue as though they owned it, or were maybe owned by it."
This quote really caught my attention, so much so that I read that portion of the story as the opening to my sermon tonight. I then spoke about the people that stood and "watched the revival." They sang the songs of rescuing but hadn't been rescued. Perhaps it was all because they had been owned by the avenue, the circumstances or the cycles that they had become of part of somehow at some point in their lives. This portion of the story lead into some personal examples of the cycles I had seen in my own life or my family's life.
I spoke about how as a little girl I used to say I did not want to get married because of this warped view of marriage I had begun to see. It was not until later that I saw the healing power of God restore my parent's marriage that hope returned.
I spoke of my mom who had broken a cycle of abuse in her family by promising herself never to hit her children.
I spoke of the cycles that we have all seen or been part of that surround us day in and day out.
We begin to live up to lies because we accept the cycles, instead of break them.
I heard a quote once that said this: "Our past is a good guiding post, but makes a terrible hitching post." And that is what the things that own us become, hitching posts. We latch on with both hands and say this is the only way. This is the only thing I've ever known, so I can't change it. Divorce is an inevitable, abuse is the norm, lack of education is ok, college is out of reach, failure is acceptable, promiscuity is just a reality of today's society and so on and so forth.
But the Lord has given US the decision to live up to the lies that the devil ingrains in our lives or to make a clean break from them. I read Ezekiel 18 and then spoke of the alternative to the cycles. A new heart, a new spirit, really living, an education, a pure marriage, a promising career, honesty, a righteous life. The lies we've been fed without even realizing it do not have to own us, we can break cycles.
With all that said, the Lectio Devina exercise led to an excellent introduction to my sermon tonight!