In the days leading up to the Revolutionary War, a gentleman by the name of Patrick Henry was said to have made the following speech: "Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace, but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? ... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Slavery comes in many flavors. There's physical slavery, and then there's the kind that arises from allowing someone or something to take your freedom from you. To think as you choose to think, to have the thoughts and beliefs that you choose to have--I should not allow anybody or anything to take that from me. To allow compulsions such as overeating or workaholism to take that freedom from you--that is a choice. You have the right to choose differently. I can ask for and accept help in breaking free from these chains.
But freedom brings its own pains, its own responsibilities.The ability to feel pain and the responsibility of realizing that you can deal with it, that you will be all right in the end. The responsibility of taking care of yourself, yourself. The responsibility of choosing to live life.
Christ, too, died to set us free. Free from the worst tragedy of all--distance from God. He made it possible for us to be closer to God, without the weight of our earlier poor choices, hurts we dealt to others in our own pain, our petty meanness and fears and angers and rages and withdrawal from relationship. Our distancing ourselves from others. Our distancing ourselves from God.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. [Galatians 5:1, ESV]
In "Changes that Heal," Henry Cloud said that the real sin is the sin that hurts ourselves or others, or distances us from God, and that to repent of such sin is to stop the hurt. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 22:37, ESV]
Patrick Henry's speech makes me think of my life as a Christian. Do I allow the chains of slavery to hold me back from reaching out to others? Do I allow the fears in my heart of being laughed at or of of being misunderstood to drive what I say and do? How often am I willing to stick my neck out for the God who stuck His neck out for me? How often do I allow the petty fears to stop me from reaching out and loving my neighbor as myself?
"I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" I should--I must!--use the liberty that Christ has given me well. I should--I must!--let go of the fear, the hurt, the misconceptions in my mind. I should--I must!--love my neighbor as myself.
O, happy day of freedom. The freedom to believe what I choose to believe. To stand up and say what I believe. To think as I would think. Being the person God meant for me to be.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. [John 15:13, ESV]
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. [1 John 3:16]