I cannot even begin to share with you all that God has been teaching me over the past few weeks. The thought of doing so kind of overwhelms me. And I have had a lot of time to prepare for being overwhelmed as I am sure that I will feel this way a lot when I come home. But life without internet and travel every ten days or so has made blogging a less than important priority. And so for that I apologize.
As we left Moldova, I realized how amazing the people there really are. It’s not that I didn’t know that while we were there but in leaving I got a different perspective. In the city there was such sadness and hopelessness that hovered, even in the Christians but in the village there was a freedom. And I have seen the difference in freedom all around the world. And if there is anything that I took away from Moldova it was how much I absolutely LOVE freedom. I love walking in it, I love sharing it, and I love watching other people encounter it. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, so why are so many of us still not free?
As an American, I have been told my whole life that I am free and I live in a free country. I have been told my whole life that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to and that basically the possibilities and opportunities are endless. Just because I am American. And not only that, but even being a white woman in America, the privileges that I have are astounding compared to the rest of the world.
And then there is spiritual freedom. In Christ, we are all free! Well, supposedly. Even though we all have access to complete freedom, we choose to be bound. We choose to live enslaved. And lately I have had the question in my spirit, WHY? Either no one told us we could be free…even though we have a Book and a personal God who speaks and tells us over and over again, OR we just cannot accept it. We believe the lie that we will always be no good sinners, nothing better, and we need to pay. AKA…we need religion. What broke my heart most this month was seeing a people who could NOT wrap their heads around the fact that God cares more about them than about the rules. Seeing people so concerned with structure and performance that they miss out on what really matters.
Within a couple days of being in the city of Leova, I could feel my freedom being challenged. As a woman, I was not seen as the leader at first. I was told that women were not allowed to speak or read scripture at church because it is not biblical. I was told I could not clap at church. I was told that I had to stand to pray. And while I know that much of this seems cultural, there were such deeper roots beneath all of these things. And the Lord spoke something so profound to me. He said that I would have to fight for the freedom that I know and possess. He told me that agreement does not mean honor and that if I am walking in love, holding no bitterness in my heart, I can disagree and still choose to honor the people I am serving. The freedom that God has given me is worth fighting for. I may not understand what it means to fight for freedom in my country or even my rights because I was born with all of that. But the freedom I have gained in Christ, I have fought for and will not back down. I will not surrender my freedom in His Spirit just because I am afraid of offending a culture. I have felt the value of that freedom and treasure it more than anything else in this world. I refuse to be held down, bound by, or enslaved to fear of any man!
