Freedom is an Opportunity to Love

Today we celebrate independence.

We celebrate our freedom. We celebrate our identity. We celebrate the refusal to live under oppression. We celebrate the decision to say no to those that used us as a tool and viewed us as a land whose value was in serving the purpose of others.

Today we celebrate the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

photo by Luke Redmond

And freedom is worth celebrating. Most people in the history of the world have not experienced it. Some in the short history of our own nation did not possess it. Some people in our world today and in our neighborhoods still don’t have it.

We are free.

Free to vote.
Free to start a company.
Free to worship who and how and when.
Free to choose between.
Free to learn. To be educated.
Free to hold to an opinion. And free to speak it.

and

We are free to love.

If you are free, celebrate. It might be one of the most important and most valuable things you posses.

Perhaps freedom is a right, but not everybody holds it. And since some don’t have it, for those of us who do, it becomes a privilege. A gift. An opportunity.

Freedom is deceptive, though. When we posses it, we convince ourselves that we can do whatever we want. And on the surface this is true.

Our freedom to pursue something does not make the object worthy to be pursued. You are also free to choose yourself. You are free to be indifferent. You are free to ignore and avoid. You are free to build bigger barns.

Gifts are given to allow the recipient the opportunity to do more. To create. To nourish. To grow. Gifts are given because the giver loves the recipient.

Jesus was free. He was free to stay in heaven. He was free to remain at his Father’s right hand. Free to rule. Free to be God.

But he came down. He stepped into our world. He used his freedom to give his life  so that we could experience freedom.

This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. (John 10:17-18 ESV)

Perhaps today is less about freedom and more about choice.

Your freedom is a gift. Now what will we choose to do with it?

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