Sunday, July 4, 2010

Freedom Hangs Like Heaven


I've been thinking a lot about what exactly freedom means to us. In America, the word "freedom" conjures up a lot of ideas about independence and liberation. And to those of us familiar or interested in social justice, it brings to mind the oppression of millions and a freedom that seems so far from their grasps. People fight wars, give up their lives in pursuit of these freedoms. We've all heard spiels about both of these things. And I am definitely not discounting the heroism of such things. But I wish the Christian community talked a lot more about the complexities of freedom that rests in Christianity. Not the "you were born again in Christ and have freedom in Him" idea. While that is true, life with Christ, in communion with God, releases us to live above the absolute oppression of a sinful world, there's the other end of that that interests me so much more. We were born into absolute freedom. Absolute freedom to choose our own path, to choose to follow our desires and our wants, and freedom to follow a much narrower path in pursuit of something much bigger than ourselves.

Freedom is also what allows for sin and shame. Freedom is what brings us into the oppressions of the world. We keep ourselves from the freedom we so desperately long for by pursuing the wrong paths. My pastor has said on more than one occasion that "every single sin in our lives is an illegitimate attempt to meet a legitimate need." Well worded, right? The freedom we long for with God, the freedom that so many of us fall short of, is up to us. We can choose to grab ahold of the freedom we all were born with and pursue a sinful nature. Or we could take that freedom and willingly pursue the God of the universe. That is how far our freedom enables us to go, straight to the Creator of all things. Jesus was born into the same world as us, He had the same freedoms we do. The difference was in what He chose to do with those freedoms. We are given an opportunity to live in community with the Father. Every action we take can bring us farther or closer to that. It is up to us. Are we willing to give our lives for that sort of freedom?

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