Free at Last!

Remember all those times in life when you felt so free! You finally had your drivers permit and you could take the car on the road without Mom or Dad being backseat drivers - free at last! Graduation day - no more classes, no more demanding teachers, no more term papers - free at last! Out from under Mom and Dad's thumb - on your own - your own apartment - no more rules - free at last! This kind of freedom is always fleeting - it never lasts.

You go to work and the boss has a whole new set of rules to follow. At work by 8 and don't be late -- freedom gone. You get married and the obligations and commitments of living and loving and working together place limitations on your life - more than you ever considered. When the kids arrive, you have even less freedom, with the needs of your children coming before your own. Where did all that freedom go?

Maybe we dream of the wrong kind of freedom - genuine freedom has obligations - it takes effort to maintain - it has to be cared for, nurtured, protected and treasured.

A neighbor told me a few years ago that he lived for years longing for his great emancipation - retirement. Then he would be free - but what he found was that even retirement has it's demands - the needs of an ailing wife, the struggles of a troubled adult child came to call - it felt as if his freedom had been taken away again.

I consider myself a free person - free to think, to love, to serve, to work, to give, to listen, to disagree, to laugh, to cry - in other words I am free to live!

Freedom is like taking a bath - you have to keep doing it every day to stay free!

As the 4th of July approaches I am enjoying my free life and thanking God for it - the old USA is a good place to live and I am blessed. I will enjoy some watermelon, have a hotdog, and enjoy some fireworks this weekend and remember that genuine freedom is hard work!

Just thinking, Steve