The Pursuit of Freedom

" Brothers and sisters: For freedom, Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.  For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. Do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through Love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as ourself.'
 But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. I say, then: Live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh . . . and the Spirit . . are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want." --[Galatians 5:1, 13-18.]


Recently, I told someone that I have never, in my life, had self-determination. That person looked at me, shocked. Being Americans, we expect ultimate freedom. Certainly, we are perhaps the most free nation on earth.

What I meant by that is that, as a child, my parents had a Life Script for me -- I was to wear "power colors", attend certain schools, select a certain college major, marry a certain kind of person, pursue a career at a specific company, in  a specific city, and in a specific department.

Once I had ticked all these things off their list, I was, well -- miserable. I was living someone else's life, not my own. After awhile, I was such a clone of who they thought I should be, I was not even sure who I was anymore. I am sorry, that is not free. THAT is enslaved.

Then, our son was born; and I chose to quit my career and stay home to raise him. This was a right choice for me and my family. A joyous choice! My work for the next few decades would become all about loving and nurturing my husband and our son.

I soon found that my life was all about awaking early to see my husband off to work. Then, seeing our son off to school. Even though, I really needed to sleep later. . . Then racing around all day accomplishing my to-do list, so that when my family came home, I could fully concentrate on the homework-dinner-bed routine. Before I knew it, the alarm was going off at daybreak again, and I was up and "off to the races" once more.

There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction about this kind of life for Americans. We are taught that life is all about, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."  Yes, we are "One Nation, under God"; but so many Americans believe that the American Dream is all about "ME" -- doing what we want to do, when we want to do it, and no one had better, EVER tell us what to do.

I had a conversation about this with my teen son only a few months ago. He complained that he did not want to do this homework assignment, but he would do that one; he did not want to take out the trash, bring his wash to the laundry room downstairs, or pick up his things from the living room floor.

My response was, 'Well, at the end of the day, I don't want to stand in the hot kitchen and make dinner. I don't want to haul wash downstairs to the washing machine and deal with the smelly, grimy, dirty clothes. I don't want to go out in the heat, the rain, the wind, the snow, to go to the market.'

My son pondered for a few moments, and took in what our life would be like if I had the "Freedom" to say, 'My Flesh is in charge, -- my feet hurt, I am tired, the wash smells awful, and I just want to sit down and do nothing.' He turned to me, then, and said, almost whimpering, "You mean that I HAVE TO do the things that I don't want to do?!"

It is highly unpopular today for Americans to say that the greatest things of all come, in life, when we love and serve others. We want to believe that the greatest of all things come when take care of ourselves, first -- when we are to sure to be our Best self, to pursue what WE want, when WE want it, to love ourselves, to never let anything stand in the way of what WE want, our goals, our own notion of Life by our own terms.

Yet, as Paul makes clear in Galatians, "The flesh and the Spirit are opposed to each other, so that we may NOT [always] do what we want."

In fact, the surest way to losing one's freedom is to become enslaved to oneself. If I say, 'I will drink this wine or this beer as much as I want, when I want' ; eventually, I will lose my freedom because I will become enslaved to alcohol.

The same goes for materialism, which is a zero sum game: if I say, 'I am going to keep making money and acquiring things, no matter what or who gets in my way'-- then, eventually, I will lose my freedom because every one of my waking hours will be spent on working to acquire MORE. And as soon as I reach what I believe is the pinnacle of success, I bump into someone who has way more than I do.

IF we believe that true Freedom is reaching our own personal goals, with no Love or regard for the needs of our community, then we will live in a world where we "go on biting and devouring once another, consuming each other."--How far away are we from this, in our world, today? Or, sadly, does this describe exactly what is going on in our world today?

Paul talks about a world in which the greatest Freedom comes from using our gifts, out of Love, to care for each other.

This does NOT mean becoming the person whom others want you to be! We must discover and hone our gifts, which are our own and come from God!

But, we are also called to use those gifts, not "as an opportunity for the flesh, but [rather] as an opportunity to serve one another with Love."

I learned the hard way, in my own childhood home, that one's life goal, to become the best self at the sacrifice of all others, is a true path to bondage. In my own family, mother was pitted against father, son against father, father against daughter, father against son, son against daughter.  We were devouring each other, in competition for all best resources.

The only way for me to untangle this ugly knot was to learn to love and serve-- serve mother, father, brother, to work for the Peace of the family.

Only then, when I no longer cared about, or paid attention to the strife, when the conflicts and devourment no longer touched me, when the anger and cruelty became irrelevant, when I left aside all competition, and I rose above in Love -- did I finally become fully Free!

[Related Posting: "Independence Day", July 4, 2100; "Celebrating My Independence", July 3, 2012; "For the Love of Freedom", June 29, 2013;  "Free To Believe", July 3, 2015.]

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