Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought to provide Americans with a country in which they would appreciate their freedom of speech and worship and their freedom from want and fear. His dream was to get Americans to realize that all they had to fear was fear itself, his goal from his first inaugural address in 1932. Freedom of and freedom from have defined our country from its earliest days.
From the chaotic and turbulent days of 1776, we as Americans have proudly and loudly proclaimed our freedom. It didn't matter that not everyone within our borders was free. We knew it was an ideal, that we had not reached it yet in its purest form, but we were willing to hold freedom up as a goal toward which we would work, live, and die to make real for everyone. Martin Luther King, Jr. said as much in his words, "America is essentially a dream."
Since those days of the signing of the Declaration of Independence 236 years ago, we have sought to make that dream a thing of reality for all that we could. For some we failed miserably with never the possibility to undo what was done. For others freedom has come in name only, and they still seek the fulfillment without man made hindrance of being able to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.
Freedom isn't free we tell ourselves. Freedom isn't easy to maintain either by government or by individual. Freedom is like muscle tone: use it or lose it. Freedom is fragile. Treat it with care.
We have so many ways to express our concern for our freedom, the value of our freedom, and the importance of freedom itself for all people everywhere. We know with only a moment's thought that freedom is more than fireworks on the 4th of July or parades or flags of stars and stripes hanging in our yards.
Freedom is people going to vote. Freedom is people marching in the streets. Freedom is a strong multi-party political system. Freedom is the right of free speech and a free press. Freedom is the right to worship without the fear of hand grenades and machine guns. Freedom is carrying a Bible or any other book openly in the street or reading it in your home without fear of police or soldiers.
Such freedom can be lost in a moment. There are other kinds of freedom, however, freedoms that endure regardless of governments or laws or guns or the opinions of men. There is one freedom especially that is independent of all these and is even independent of this life altogether. It is the freedom of the soul.
In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus lays the foundation for this eternal freedom (John 8:31-36). He who says the truth will set you free calls himself the Truth (John 14:6). He who says it is the Son who can give you true freedom is himself the Son (John 3:16).
The Apostle Paul in Galatians, his great letter of Christian freedom, begins the fifth chapter with the words, "For freedom Christ has set you free." We are intended to be free, not from the guidance that comes from an understanding of the will of God, but from the penalty that comes with our failure to follow that will.
We are free only in Christ. In all other ways we live under the delusion of freedom when it is slavery to the tyrants of this world that we are experiencing. A flag with stars stands for our freedom in this life. A flag with a cross stands for our freedom in eternity. Does your freedom extend beyond the bars of death?
