Freedom

I know what you're thinking...typical 4th of July post where someone goes off about freedom & all that this day represents. Well...I don't know about "typical" but days like today do remind me of the awesome privilege I have of living in a "free" country.

Now, I don't agree with everything that America has come to represent, but I am thankful for the freedom that I have. It's days like today that I'm reminded of my friends across the world who don't live with the same kind of freedoms that I take for granted.

This morning I was thinking about my friends in Southeast Asia. I wish you could meet them & hear their stories personally. I wish that they could give you the same new perspective on the meaning of freedom as they gave me. I'm so thankful for the opportunities I've had to travel around the world & see life in other places. I'm thankful that I've been given the opportunity to be impacted by people on the other side of the world who look nothing & live nothing like me.

See, these friends live in a place where they fail in school if their professors find out they are a Christ Follower. They live in a place where family businesses are destroyed because they have a hope and faith in the One true God. They live in a place where churches are scarce & believers are few. And they hear about a place like America and about the word freedom & they wish and wonder about coming to such a place. And as I listened to their stories of oppression & living in fear, I couldn't help but ask myself, "what am I doing with my freedom?"

I love the song we often sing in Connection, "I Am Free." It challenges me every time I listen to it to wrestle with the question, "What am I doing with my freedom? Am I living free?"

Maybe you don't remember the words...
I am free to run
I am free to dance
I am free to live for you
I am free!

And then...the song goes on to say "If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed." (Jn 8:36) And then, of course, we all proudly shout out, "I know the Son has set me free, I am free indeed!"

Anybody else challenged by those words? I live in a country where I can love God freely, speak about God freely, live for God freely...AM I?

I desire to live in the freedom that Christ has given me. Over this past year, God has continued to lay this passage on my heart. I hope that it encourages you & challenges you to want to live out the freedom that you've been given.

"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." (Is 42:6-7)