Freedom
Good morning, or good evening, or good afternoon, or good whatever time you’re reading this! Happy Fourth of July to y’all/yinz Americans! (Perhaps one of the only times I will ever use the word “yinz.”) I feel that if today I start talking about freedom that would be very cheesy. Freedom! It’s what we fight for in the United States. Freedom! You might imagine a Texan with a cowboy hat draped in the American flag, banging his fist as he utters the word. I could go on and on with pictures. One meme said, in a sarcastic way, that Marylanders turn into a blue crab and crawl on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay at night. But I digress…
It can’t be helped. “Freedom” has become an important word this week for me, whispered around the edges of the hours. In this country specifically, “freedom” is what we’re taught in school about how America was founded on the desire for it, though it was not founded on what we would gain once we escaped any oppression. Freedom from, but not freedom to. In this country and in this world, freedom is sought in every way: freedom to speak, freedom to do what one wants morally, career-wise, politically, religiously, sexually, and more. Of course all this falls under morality. No one is outside of the Law. None of us, left to ourselves, really want the Law. We just want to break it.
It’s freedom from the desire to break the Law that I’ve been hearing about this week. I heard a sermon last Sunday that perfectly outlined the freedom to live a successful life, something I had just prayed for and a topic which has been greatly discussed this past year. Elijah, by God’s power, won the showdown at Mt. Carmel against prophets of Baal, yet he did not win the heart of Israel, and Jezebel was out to kill him. Moses led the people through the desert for 40 years, but was not able to enter the Promised Land himself because of his one disobedience, done out of anger. There are times when it seems all is lost with nothing to show for it. But despite their sin and present failure, they were faithful to God. That’s true success in life.
When we recognize that the end result in our own viewpoint does not matter, but being faithful to God is, we can trust better that He is working out all things together. It is His story after all, and He’s perfect.
We’re not living for the things of this world. Our treasures lie in heaven, in eternity. Of course, there is the sin that so easily entangles us. This is what one of my BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) leaders prayed against this week over our group. Freedom from sin, freedom to live for God and do whatever He has called us to do this week. Freedom to paint, freedom to write, freedom to be a witness of His power and goodness in our lives, freedom to be thankful to Him.
“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Colossians 3:17