Independence Day

Independence day has come and gone, leaving me, like many Americans,
pondering the value and meaning of freedom. As a people, we are a
freedom-loving bunch. We commercialize it, proselytize it, sloganize
it, and generally display it in every facet of our lives, whether as a
flag on the front of our house, a shirt decorated with the stars and
stripes, or a theme in an advertisement. The question arises, though,
if we are really as free as we think?
Now, I'm not going into conspiracy theory here. Really, what I would
point out is that freedom is only for the strong. Even when given a
government that grants personal freedom, the weak find ways to
subordinate themselves, whether through drug addiction, party manifesto,
work, economics, or whatever other creative way they find to enslave
themselves. Many are slaves to their own desires, not realizing that in
"doing what they want to do" that they create a hedonistic master that
rules over them just as surely as a tyrant.
In the Bible, the apostle Paul said "It is for freedom that Christ has
set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). Even then, there were
those who did not understand the true meaning of freedom and began to
indulge in any base human desire they had, thus enslaving themselves
once more after Christ's sacrificial act set them free. I do not know
to whom I should attribute the quote, but one truism in my life is that
"there are two kinds of freedom: the false freedom to do what you want
to do, and the true freedom to do what you ought to do." Again, it is
pointed out that base desire and wonton actions are not true freedom.
By giving in to these desires, we again assign a master to ourselves.
When we live our lives in a Christian way by denying ourselves the
master of the flesh, and instead, choosing to do those things we ought
to do to make ourselves and our world around us a better place in order
to glorify His Name, we experience true freedom. The truly free
experience a peace that no other does. This is the sum total of all of
the teachings in the New Testament. Galatians 13-15 says, "You, my
brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to
indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The
entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or
you will be destroyed by each other."
Forget spirituality for a moment. Do you hear practical advice here
that would apply to your own life? As a Christian, poor one though I
am, I receive two great gifts from Jesus. The first, of course, is
salvation and the knowledge that this world will not be the end, but
instead, the beginning. The other great gift of faith, though, is
peace. As Christians, we simply do not see the world as others do. We
are literally aliens in a foreign land. A financial loss, while
painful, is still material loss, and because we are not enslaved to the
material, is not something that would cause such overwhelming pain as to
make us take irrational action like suicide or murder, as has happened
recently with a quarterback whose life ended far too early. Death,
also, does not hold the sting as it does for someone who sees it as an
ultimate end. Does this mean that we don't feel, don't empathize, or
are robots muddling our way through life dependent upon the Bible to
dictate to us what to feel and how to feel it? Of course not. As human
beings, we feel hurt just as deeply as the next person. The difference
is that, when drowning in a sea of sorrows, Christ has provided us with
a lifeline to hang onto.
Some would ask if we aren't making the Christian life our master. To a
degree, yes, but God is a father, not a slave-driver. The actions we
take to live the life we are taught are as necessary as breathing and
eating, and thus, unavoidable. This living the Christian life is the
fight we must all fight during our brief physical existence. I say
fight, because it is certainly a constant struggle, as our fleshly
natures constantly quarrel with us to win us back over to the material
side. Thomas Jefferson once said that "Occasionally the tree of Liberty
must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants" in
acknowledgement that there will always be a struggle to maintain freedom
from those who would take it away from us. This holds true with the
spiritual just as surely as it does with the physical and the political.
As Americans, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that freedom and
fighting go hand-in-hand, as we have had it given to us for so long.
Those who have once lived under the oppression of a tyrant seem to
appreciate this aspect of freedom more than we do, and because of it,
cherish it even more deeply. Only by fighting the good fight can we
defend our freedom and live a life unhindered by anyone or anything who
would knock us off of our path.