FREE AND FREER

I do wonder at times if true freedom is honestly achievable in life? I've known plenty of people who have been rebels and lived on the fringes of life, but I never felt they were truly free.

We can naturally do our best to achieve whatever version of freedom we think will gain us liberty from whatever enslaves. But does that truly qualify as freedom?

That might not be a question that we can truly answer. Well not if we are being honest. Which is perhaps is an ingredient of being free that can't be discounted.

One can claim to be free by claiming not to be dependent on something, however that doesn't mean it is the truth. I'm thinking of things like addictions at this point. I'm sure more than one person thought they were free who were in reality a slave to some substance.

The real measure of course of their freedom resided in when they tried to give up that addiction. I don't think there is any more harsh reality in that sense than finding out you have no control over a part of your life.

Which I think is the ultimate in terms of not being free. But I'm not sure everyone shares that opinion. That is the reason I think denial has such a hold on so many people in one way or another.

Perhaps one of the most quoted parts of scripture is the one about how the truth shall set you free. However, in the context in which the Lord mentioned it the condition was that you had to abide in Christ. Then and only then is one able to know the truth and truly be free.

But what is the freedom you get from abiding in Christ. I'm sure you can find all kinds of people who will give you an answer. That doesn't mean it is necessarily the right one.

And if it isn't the right one, then is it truly based on the truth? From my view real freedom starts with honesty. That is because we play too many games to avoid an truths that remind we are someone other than who we truly are.

But knowing the truth doesn't necessarily mean you won't be imprison in some way in this life either. For I think of the Apostle Paul. He certainly abided in Christ and who knew the truth better?

Yet he spend a fair about of his life in prison and hardly lived a life that was without some kind of restrain. So does real freedom me that we are free to do whatever we want when we want to? It doesn't seem to be the case as I view it.

I think it is more freedom in terms of knowing the truth that this is not the end of life. That we do have in Christ a hope eternal. And that is a truth that grants us the type of freedom to look at the shackles of life and remember only our Lord has the power to break them. But that sometimes he doesn't do so in this life time.