Freedom – it’s a funny thing.
We all claim that we want it and we work hard to get it, but
when we have it we almost always, almost immediately, give it away.
Freedom is a spiritual word.
It evokes awe in one’s spirit, and desire, and yearning for
something intangible and nearly unexplainable.
I’m thinking of the scene in Brave Heart where William Wallace bellows “FREEDOM”
and our hearts swell with longing and agreement and we all have a sense of some
higher purpose more Nobel than the daily life we all live. We all want that. We all feel as though it is supposed to
be. We all cheer for those who pursue it
and fight for it.
I think however that most of us are resigned to live life as
it is. We see it honestly as lacking freedom
– most of us. We feel stuck and in a rut
and as though someone else was in control. We do not have a sense of adventure, or
Nobility, or higher purpose in our lives at all. We simply exist. I think that most of us are simply going
through the motions of life and have no direction or outlet for our
desires. So we squelch them. We bury them in a vault in our hearts never
to be opened because somehow we know that they can never be realized. We have settled. We have turned our backs on freedom because
we do not believe we have control of our circumstances.
Freedom from responsibility is slavery.
For instance, I choose to eat much more than my body
requires for nourishment to function. I also
choose to spend only what money is required to sustain the lifestyle I have. And on occasion I indulge in some little extra
fancy. But these are choices I make. I am not held at gunpoint at any juncture to
require my choices to be made against my own will. The decisions I make are based on my own
level of comfort with how I am going to be perceived, balanced with physical
comfort and desires. I must work in
order to have money to have food and clothing and housing. I don’t like work but I choose to do it for
what I want it to give me.
Freedom from anything can be something far less than
glorious. It can be dangerous. Everything has a price.
I chose to indulge in excess food and the price I’ve paid is
slavery to it. My mouth thinks it can
have anything it wants. I’ve been a
slave to my desire for food. If I choose
to walk away from my responsibility – work, paying bills, functioning within
the rules – I end up eventually with nothing – which puts me in slavery of a
different kind. If I choose indulgence I
will pay the price, one way or another.
Freedom does not equal to control.
You see – in truth – in the end – everyone does what they
want. Oh sure we have constraints on us
and the framework of our lives that we must work within. But in the end we all do exactly as we
choose. We all – most certainly – have freedom.
Freedom is a gift and a responsibility.
When I think of the freedom that God gave me: Freedom of choice, to choose Him or not to
choose Him; I am amazed at His ability to risk. And I am also astonished that He has not annihilated
us for the choices that we’ve made because of it.
This is what He is saying to us:
Here is my heart. You
can choose to accept it and give your heart to me in return. Or you can choose to reject it and murder my
love because you do not trust it. But even
if you do that I will still pursue you with an everlasting love that will never
give up on you. I will love you till the
end of the earth and beyond. I will
follow you even into Hell itself to get you back if I must. I will lay down my life for you. I will do whatever it takes for you to be Mine
again.
I have given you freedom.
It has come back to bite me, as I knew it would. But it was worth the risk. Because when you choose to love me freely
then I truly have your heart. And that
is worth everything.
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