“Not everyone is willing to embrace liberty; liberty requires not just effort, but risk. Some people choose to delude themselves and see their chains as protective armor.” ― Terry Goodkind, Chainfire
I have devoted my life to freedom.
I have to free myself. And I have to show others how to free themselves. I can't free them. They have to free themselves.
And a shocking number of people really don't want to be free. "Who doesn't want to be free?" you ask.
When I called my mother to tell her about where the bishop was sending me, what turned out to be my last appointment, I told her the church members said they wanted to grow.
"That's good," she responded, supportively.
"It doesn't mean a thing," I said.
"How can it not mean a thing?"
"Mom! I keep saying I want to be skinny. I just don't want to diet and exercise."
Freedom, as the saying goes, isn't free. And it's not something you just buy and keep. It requires maintenance. It's like your health: if you don't work to maintain it, you lose it. Ask a 55-year-old man who's about forty pounds overweight; who has the horrible letters "MI" in his medical history; who is on medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and coronary artery spasms; who has arthritis-induced cervical spondylosis--in other words, if I don't do my neck stretches daily, I have horrible pains up the back of my head. I'm not a teenager anymore, and I would swear I was a teenager just a couple of years ago.
It's an adult thing, freedom. You don't give it to children. They can't handle it. They'd use it to hurt themselves and others.
Would I do well if I were free?
A clinical psychologist I saw after my divorce told me he had a dream that someone had given me several million dollars, and in the dream he was afraid for me. It made me think: if I didn't have to get up and go to work 40 hours a week, what would I do? If I could afford to buy whatever I want, what would I get? There's a lot of alcoholism in my family. Would I die the death John Belushi died? The death Robert Downey Jr. has avoided, and I predicted he wouldn't?
But "For freedom, Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1). It's what God wants.
I have promised God I will live the rest of my life for freedom.
Care to come along?
2 comments:
This is sooooo true Will! People want to be free but they do not want to work for it. They want free to be free as well. My Mom used to tell me, "Anything worth having is worth working for". A saying that I have held dear to my heart every since. I am with you.....I want to be free! God Bless!
my grandfather has worked his rear off for his entire life...surviving this long being an alchoholic (sober for over 30 years now) he has built a business to leave behind. when this business was at its height financially, i was 15 years old. ive told you a bit about my relationship with my grandfather so you know how dearly i hold his advice and affection. one night we were sitting out on the picnic table, and i had just finished paying off my first car. i didnt even have my license yet. he turned to me and smiled, "annie? you know i could have bought you a better car than that, but i never would have. you wouldnt have appreciated it and cared for it at all." i just smiled and said "i know." truth is, i dodnt know why. i couldnt figure out why he wouldnt want me to have a safer, more dependable vehicle if it was in his power to give it to me. about a year later, my aunt and uncle bought my cousin her first car. she let it go to hell. trashed it completely, and then expected them to replace it! i was so mad at her. she had never had to work for anything. they provided her the best of any whim she ever had. laying in bed that night, i realized what my grandpa had meant that night a year previous. i got out of bed, walked to chair where he was sitting watching the news. i climbed into his lap, hugged him and told him "thank you for making me like you." he hugged me back and cried, so of course i cried. i think this story applies to any kind of freedom.
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