You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)
Free: not under the control or in
the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes
Freedom is a hot-button topic. Most of
the time, what is described as freedom generally involves one person being able
to do whatever he/she wants with the approbation of everyone around him/her.
Unfortunately, that means that everyone else must be like the citizens and
courtiers in the Hans Christian Anderson story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” which
means that no one else has any freedom that the “emperor” doesn’t like.
Some will counter that freedom isn’t
the right of an individual to do whatever he/she wants, but the right of the
individual to live according to his/her conscience – to do what he/she believes
to be right. I have to agree, this is an important conversation that needs to
continue.
But today, let’s take it a little
deeper. Put aside the question of your freedom within society or even within
your family. Forget for a few minutes about how free you are in your
relationships with any other human being.
How free are you? Are you free to eat, or to not eat? Are you free to
engage in activities that are harmful to
you or to others – or free to not engage in them? Do you need coffee or caffeine
to get yourself going in the morning? Or alcohol to let you sleep? Or nicotine
for whatever reason? Do you need painkillers to get by? Do you get by without
painkillers because you think you have to? Is your body incapable?
I have to say that I don’t think I have
much freedom. I can’t seem to bring myself to eat healthfully. My body doesn’t
want to cooperate with exercising even if my brain does. I struggle with “I’m
not prepared for emergencies,” with the guilt of incompetence, and the guilt of
having failed to perform to the level I imagine I “should have.” I’m afraid of failure, imperfection, and
success. I tend to resent it when people don’t think well of me, whether the
target of that resentment is myself or someone else. The list is longer, but
you get the idea. Even if no one else took my freedom, I do.
So, when Paul writes that we are called
to be free, my ears prick up and listen. I don’t hear the call – or if I do, it
is the call to work very hard at breaking free from these things. And I just
want to sit in a mud puddle and cry because – of course – I tend to think of
having to break completely free all at once and forever and ever.
But if I can’t be free all at once and
forever and ever, perhaps I can be free for the next minute, ten minutes, or an
hour. Perhaps I can replace the
enslaving activity or thoughts with something that doesn’t indulge the flesh,
but promotes my health, or blesses someone else.
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