Is it something we have just because we have a higher standard of living?
Is it something I am going to give to a poor person with a pat on the back?
Isn’t if funny how when you want to connect with someone they might tell you that they are “free” around 2 o clock? Is freedom simply having a gap in your busy schedule?
I believe freedom is not a gap in anything. I believe that in order to find true freedom you must let go of everything. We were manufactured in a society that values running as fast as we can at all times while holding as much weight as we can. Ask any runner how much he takes with him while running a marathon and yet we believe that the more we attain the more freedom we will have. We literally sign up to take on more slavery every chance we get.
Freedom is a word that we have grown incredibly comfortable with as Americans and as Christians but I fear the concept itself is still incredibly lost from our experience. We have given slavery a new vernacular in attempts to justify its dominating existence in our lives.
While we might think of plantations when we hear the world “Slavery” but the most acceptable form of slavery in our culture is busyness. How many of us cannot get away for a moment to do something that truly gives life to our soul? We are stuck running from one thing to the next because we fear that we won’t keep up.
There are so many things we have to do because if we don’t do them then we fear we will lose something. That is slavery. Some of our relationships operate on this principal. We go to our jobs by our own choice because if we didn’t then we fear we would be homeless. We rush our kids to a thousand places because if we didn’t we fear we would be bad parents. We do church stuff because if we didn’t then we fear we wouldn’t be good Christians. After running at a high pace for so long we train ourselves to never shut down. When we finally have a second to ourselves the phone or the tablet comes out to make us feel like we are still accomplishing something.
By all means, have a job, be a good parent and love the Lord at church but if your “freedom” seems to be consistently on the other side of the fence then you bring your slavery into every function that you do.
We are not free if we cannot sit with ourselves free of distractions and anxiety. We are not free because we took a week vacation so we can tolerate the rest of life. We are not free because we have a 30 year mortgage and credit cards. We are not free because we get 30 minute lunch breaks. Slavery is something that literally dominates every second of our waking existence. Unfortunately many Christians remain blind to its overwhelming presence because freedom has been limited to going to heaven when we die. It is the age old trick every magician knows. Get everyone to look over there when the real trick is happening right in front of your eyes. It is happening with every “convenience” you purchase, every app you download and every hour of overtime you put in.
Thank you Jesus from saving us from hell but I long for a freedom that is more that something we feel for a moment while singing at church. I want a freedom that fills me to a place where I can be totally present where I am. I want a freedom that is allowed to have fun with my relationship with God and actually be excited about sharing Him with others. I want a freedom that doesn’t hold my relationship with God back to a place where I only talk to Him because I need something that I think will give me peace…
We are Christians… We are Americans… We are slaves to more than we realize.
