Have you ever said a word so many times in a row, then after a while that word loses it’s meaning and just becomes a sound??? Do it… say any word. Say your own name! Say it over, and over, and over again for a minute!

So? Yep. It’s now just a meaningless collection of vibrations that came out of your throat and settled into your ears. The brain has heard it so many times in a row that it is now jaded to the importance of what that sound stands for… in essence… since there was no context, no signifier to bring contour, it became lost in translation.

Sometimes there are buzz words or phrases that float around our Christian communities that begin to sound like a repeated word that fades into just being a sound. One such phrase used by our squad has really been on my heart lately.

P-Squad has been prophesied over as a squad of Promise, Plenty, and Punctual (kidding about that last one). One word that has stood out in the past month is that we are a squad of PHREEDOM.

P IS FOR PHREEDOM.


We have used this word so much in the past few months, that I’m afraid I have lost the meaning of it in my life. I have found myself losing my ground in discipline. I can’t sleep. I have had trouble doing things that allow me to feel the freedom to create, to laugh, and to love. Somewhere along the lines of loving God and loving people, the freedom that I embraced to do those things has become a droning noise that shows me no direction. Instead, it’s ambient noise drowns my clarity of mind.

I heard a quote once…

Freedom is not the ability to choose what you want… it’s the ability to choose which master you will serve.

We have the power to  manipulate freedom for our own pleasure. We have the ability to make freedom our slave. We can turn our choice to follow God into a choice to make ourselves god.

We also have the power to turn our freedom into our obligation. God gave us the freedom to love each other with His heart by the sacrifice of His Son. When we rebel… when we section off God’s people, deeming some more worthy or needing of love than others, we put chains on our freedom to love equally. We divide God’s Kingdom by our own priorities.

On the race, we often cling to different identities to justify why we choose to not embrace freedom.

“I’m a introvert, I can’t spend that much time with people… it’s just not the way i was made.”

“My love language is quality time… not receiving gifts. I just don’t get love that way.”

“I feel like my calling is to street ministry, that’s why I spend such little time with family. It’s not as big of a deal.”

When did freedom become our excuse to not freely love?

Our lives lived within Christ gives meaning to the over-spoken word, “freedom”. As a P-Squad team member and squad leader, I am declaring that P STANDS FOR PHREEDOM. My life will give meaning to this word in the context in which Jesus gave His life on the cross. I will embrace an identity not formed on the right to make a choice… instead I will embrace an identity that rests on the firm foundations of choosing to serve Christ.

I will wake up to my own funeral, dying to my rights to define freedom, dying to self and man made expectations placed on me and others, dying to the revolutions and flags devoted to a word lost in translation.

So live in the boldness that I have acquired within the last 30 minutes of writing this blog to ask yourself this question:

What have I made freedom to look like? What DOES it look like?

or more simply…

Where are the chains in my life? What is keeping me from freedom?

Our Jesus is waiting so patiently to show you His scars again. He wants to show His payment that He made for you, not to burden you, but to take that burden away. Release your shame. Release your failure. Let love and healing and purpose and life embrace you again! That’s how chains are broken… they’re broken by the hugs of Jesus. SOMEBODY MAKE A TSHIRT OUT OF THAT TRUTH!

Last thought:


Just now, I already feel a fresh breeze of hope. That’s the funny thing about freedom, it allows us the ability of foresight. It’s a momentum maker for our tomorrow! It’s what keeps our feet floating back into the reality of “now”. Both of these come from the redemption of yesterday. So there it is…

Freedom.
The momentum we need for tomorrow.
The gravity we need for today.
The redemption we needed for our yesterday.

So. Read our blogs. Look at our pictures. Stalk our Facebooks. In doing these things… I hope you see the true face of PHREEDOM in P-Squad!

love love…