What is freedom? How would you define it? Fifty-five years ago, Andy Williams recorded the song “Born Free” and the lyrics periodically surface inside my head. Do you remember the words?
“Born Free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart
“Live free and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star
“Stay free, where no walls divide you
You’re free as the roaring tide
So there’s no need to hide
“Born free, and life is worth living
But only worth living
‘Cause you’re born free”
At some level, freedom is an experience that expresses itself through unlimited opportunity? I don’t know anyone who doesn’t desire freedom. It is a universal need that we all share.
This same is true for our dog Snickers. If you want to disturb a sense of tranquility, try confining Snickers to one room in our home while you are visiting with people in another part of the house. Some of you are thinking, “Why would you want to do that? I won’t bother to answer, but I guarantee you that if Snickers wants out, he will bark incessantly until you give in and open the door.
I’m talking about an old rescue dog that is very much like me. He is blind and mostly can’t hear, but he is loveable. When he first came to live with us a little over three years ago, he didn’t bark for the first several days. I remember breathing a sigh of relief when he finally found his voice and could express himself.
Don’t we all want that? Don’t we all want the ability to articulate our needs and wishes and have a seat at the table? Without that privilege, we don’t have the sense that we belong. Without that freedom, we don’t sense that we are important. Long story short – We don’t have the sense that we matter.
Isn’t the greatest longing of the human heart, a desire to be free?
Isn’t the experience of freedom or the need for freedom a longing that we all share? It is universally true. It is true of my dog. It is true of me.
Let me preface my next comment by acknowledging up front, that I’m mixing apples and oranges here, but on a feeling level what I’m sharing is true for me. It may be true for you as well.
Freedom – How does it feel to forfeit freedom even temporarily?
How does it feel to forfeit freedom even when reportedly it is for your own good?
Early in the pandemic, it was almost with a sense of disbelief that I watched how quickly, in the face of a looming pandemic, our government had the power to shut down schools, close businesses, close churches, close daycare centers, eliminate recreational activities from your calendar, close places to eat and eliminate things to do along with prohibiting any gatherings including more than 10 people. In the space of just three or four days, it was a done deal.
I’m not suggesting that the action wasn’t justified or even needed, but the feelings associated with that experience weren’t feel-good experiences. At least that is true of my perception.
Overnight we became aware of just how quickly governmental officials at the local, county, state, and national levels became health experts and went to great lengths to protect us from ourselves.
Freedom – How does it feel not to have it or to find oneself in harm’s way to defend it or attain it? Perhaps, because I have never been in the midst of war or in a set of circumstances that was potentially life-threatening, I can’t fully comprehend the full range of emotions that war orchestrates.
I know my dad never fully set aside the ghosts from the experiences he endured in WWII. I have a friend whose plane went down in Vietnam. He spent several days in the jungle before he was recovered. His wife tells me that although he won’t talk about the experience, he still has nightmares associated with it. That was well over fifty-five years ago. Interestingly, he has never mentioned it to me.
In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl reflects on his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi war camp. At one point, he tells of the Allies coming to liberate Dachau. When the inmates were released, some of them walked out into the bright sun, blinked hard, looked around nervously, and then turned to re-enter the place of death.
Frankl writes: “So shocking was freedom and so accustomed were they to their bondage, they didn’t know what to do with the capacity of freedom”.
Scripture has a lot to say about freedom. In fact, the reality is that we will never be free until we discover the gift of freedom that only God can provide. Christ said to those following him: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
Isn’t it true that independence without the guiding hand of God generally gravitates toward vested interest and a “me-first” attitude? You’d have to be cognitively impaired to look at the Scripture highlighting the importance of loving God and loving our neighbor to think vested interest is what God had in mind.
All The Best!
Don
Carpe Diem 