This
Independence Day our United States will mark 238 years of struggle to find
freedom, define freedom, and provide freedom for all people across our land.
Obvious to all, we have not reached our goal. We have thrown around the word
equality as a benchmark for this idea of freedom, but we realize quickly even
that word is subject to a thousand interpretations and applications.
What will it
take to make all men free (mankind, personkind – how do you avoid the gender
issue as we seek equality)? How can we reshape society so as to allow everyone
to be equal? Is this truly a dream, an ideal that is humanly impossible? Is it
even a good thing? How close is close enough to the ideal before the solutions
cause more problems than they solve?
What
prevents freedom in our land, or more so around the world, and keeps it just
beyond our grasp? What stands in the way of equality being the natural law of
society instead of another series of manmade laws that perpetually fall short
of their goal?
First
perhaps we need to see freedom does not “equal” equality. To be free does not
lead automatically to equality. In fact to be free may even give one the power
to reject equality as an undesirable status in life.
Freedom
offers one the opportunity both to move toward and to move away from. Freedom
offers the opportunity to make decisions without being answerable to the
influence of others. Freedom in its extreme offers the opportunity to think and
act without repercussions for one’s actions. That is a freedom society rejects
and will not allow. No one can exist as a part of society and be free in every
sense of the word.
The life of
the follower of Jesus Christ is founded on and guided by the paradox that to be
free one must surrender everything. John’s Gospel records,
Joh 8:31-32 So Jesus said to those who believed in him,
"If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free." (CEV)
Neither the
power of the sword nor the laws of man will ever bring about the freedom God
intended for his creation. Only insofar as we know the Truth will we become
free. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father but by me.” (John 14:6) The Truth is not a philosophical postulate or
treatise. Truth is a Person. That Person brings real and eternal freedom.
Freedom does
not come from a release from all restrictions. Freedom comes as we choose to
follow the path designed for our nature as children of God. Only as we seek,
find, and give ourselves over to the way that matches our divinely intended nature
can our freedom find its fullest expression.
The author
of the biblical book of Hebrews writes:
Heb
12:1 As for us, we have this large crowd of
(faithful) witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything
that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let
us run with determination the race that lies before us.
Heb
12:2 Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our
faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross!
On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought
nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the
right side of God's throne.
Heb
12:3 Think of what he went through; how he put up
with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged
and give up.
Using our
freedom to place self above all else leads only to the chains which can only
hold us down.
We live with
the paradox. Only as we surrender our wills to the Spirit of God can we know true
freedom. Life finds its fulfillment as we find our freedom in obedience and
surrender.
