Freedom

I won't waste your time or mine with my excuses for not updating regularly so let's just get into the real stuff.

It was about 4:30am Friday night/Saturday morning when I was reflecting on some recent events and conversations. What was I doing up at that time you may ask? Jr. High Girls Lock In 2007. We rented several wholesome PG movies to entertain us, one of which was Flicka. It’s a movie about a teenage girl seeking her own identity and independence who finds herself connected to a young horse she names Flicka. The main character feels she can relate to the horse because the horse is untamable, like herself. Since Jr. high students are beginning their journey towards independence I thought somehow they could relate. The movie ends with the main character saying all she felt was free. In all of her searching what she found was freedom.

This made me start thinking of other movies with freedom as their theme – Braveheart, Amistad, Freedom Writers, The Little Mermaid, Bruce Almighty. I realized that we are not much different than the people in these movies, we desire freedom too. The same way that God has placed a desire for Himself in our hearts, we have an inherent desire for freedom. Interestingly enough, the freedom that we seek is also found in Him.

Romans 7:24- 25 “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

God offers us freedom from sin, freedom from death, and the freedom to choose Him or not. When we say yes to God, we say no to other things. We choose to sacrifice other freedoms for a greater and lasting freedom found in Him. In Jesus’ story, he chose to say yes to God. He gave up his own freedom, his high place in heaven, his comfort, his family, his friends, his entire life to allow the world to have freedom and abundant life.

Ultimately, our freedom is not found in our independence but in our dependence on God. Freedom is found in a relationship with Him and His people. We need each other.

...if none of that makes sense, just remember it came to me at 4:30 in the morning.