Freedom?

We’re well into election season here, and a few days ago I happened to be at home when someone came canvassing. I recognise that I’m a political animal; a long-ago earned degree in Political Science set me up well for this time of governmental change.

The person started off with a question that I recognised had the intention to be evocative, controversial, a definitive conversation starter. The loaded question earnestly asked was: “Do you agree that your government should support your freedom?”

I was keen for a political discourse; but he wasn’t prepared for my response: I asked him how he/his candidate/his party was defining ‘freedom’. He wasn't able to; and even when I offered some prompts (Religious? Personal? Military?) and asked how each of those fit in to the question, and by extension the political platform, he wasn’t able to make those connections. (Instead I was encouraged to make an appointment with the candidate directly so I could ask those questions.)

The words we use can have different meaning, and different connotation, depending on our experience and worldview, and the present context. And these contexts are regularly evolving, growing, changing. Life happens!

Overall, freedom is being released from something that constrains us. While there’s a broad way to apply that definition to our lives, as people of faith we can seek the freedom that is promised to us by God. It’s not a freedom that can be quantified by earthly standards, for it brings us beyond earthly restraints. When we are free, we can understand what it means to be in the world but not of the world.

So as I have had a few moments to ponder what it means to be free, I understand that my true freedom is granted by God, through the promises made to us all in Jesus the Christ. We are free to shed the earthly cords that bind, and to dwell in the liberation of divine love and walk in the light of the Lord.

As Simeon proclaimed that day in the Temple: (Luke 2:29-32)
Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people.