Week 3.17: Real Freedom

Week 3.16: Real Freedom is a photo I took on the 4th of July. Weird that I'm posting it in November. I know. But fireworks always make me think of our Real Freedom. I took this photo on my first 4th of July with my new family. And it was actually a really hard night for me...I thought about past 4th of Julys and who I had spent it with.

I remembered the one last year where I went with family and watched the fireworks put on by our church. And the one in Colorado where, again, I had been with family, and we watched from the grass as a show was put on by a collective neighborhood. "Big Daddy" ran the thing. Afterward the debris was two feet deep all along the gutters. I remembered the one with friends who had a pool and a flat-roofed house where our backs were warmed by the stucco as we lay gazing up into the sky. I remembered standing in perfectly groomed grass in a yard overlooking the city and watching multiple shows at once...I remember one of those times was right before one of my brother-in-laws proposed to my sister-in-law.

Little freedoms...all those memories. It got me thinking about Real Freedom. Weird again. Because sometimes Real Freedom doesn't look so free. And sometimes being falsely free happens, too. And people will congratulate you on your freedom, and you will congratulate yourself on your freedom, but no one will tell you that you aren't really free. Except maybe a really good friend.

There are some gifts that are free. And sometimes, there are gifts that seem free but aren't. I think of the "free" helicopter tour that comes with you listening to a three hour timeshare presentation. The "free" gift that comes with purchase. The "free" cards and stickers that come in the mail from organizations asking for money. The "try-it-free for a month" offers. The "free" windshield wash you didn't ask for but someone still expects you to pay for.

Real Freedom, being really, truly free is a lot more rare than we think. Freedom from worry. Freedom from addictions. Freedom from fear. Freedom to confess failures...and to move past them. Freedom to love. Freedom to submit yourself to a higher authority.

All of our Real Freedoms are fought for by our amazing military. But there's an even bigger war and a bigger army and more Real Freedom at stake. How wonderful to know that in the midst of all our struggles there is One who fights to redeem us and set us free...truly free.

May I learn daily to walk in increasing Real Freedom with the One who gave up all His Real Freedoms to give me mine.