Freedom. It’s so simple. It’s something we all desire. So what keeps us from it?
We create so many boundaries for ourselves, because we’re nervous of who we would be if there was nothing holding onto us. We’re anxious about where it would take us. We think that we wouldn’t know how to define ourselves without the social constructions that supposedly give us an “identity.” More specifically, being free would mean giving up control of ourselves – and without control, how can we still appear put-together?
Maybe it’s just because being in school can seem like THE FARTHEST thing from freedom, but in the last week, I’ve encountered numerous opportunities that have challenged me to think about what life means to me – who I am, what I’m passionate about, where I want to go, and what would really be the most satisfying thing I would hope to experience in this life. Again and again, this concept of freedom hovered over every topic I encountered – from the campus ministry I’m involved with, to random kitchen-table conversation, sermons, and even in teaching my dance class.
What I discovered each time I listened or spoke in these thought-provoking situations, was that the interests, hopes and passions God has given to me have not been made to tie me down, burden me, or consume me with an unavoidable sense of duty, but that God has placed them there to embrace and to use for His glory. In 2 Corinthians 3:17, the apostle Paul wrote, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
It’s so simple. It’s something we all desire.
We just have to take that invitation to give up whatever it is that’s trying to trick us into feeling like a failure, or exhausting us to the point of giving up. Not in the sense that we should no longer try, but instead to work with a persevering attitude that our weaknesses can shape us to overcome, and that true freedom is God working through us in whatever aspect of our lives we allow Him to.
