They Can Make Our Lives Miserable, But They Are Never Going To Break Us, 7

Gentle Reader, this will be the last of this series.  Number Seven.  I want to explore in this article an idea that has been implicit throughout these posts, but here I want to make it a little more obvious.  This is the idea of living as though we are already free.

I am free.  This isn't to say that I don't have obligations.  Tons.  Especially professional.  I have to attend to the needs of a dozen clients, at least, every week while at times bending over backwards to keep my supervisors happy and quiet.  If I don't do this I could lose my job, the ability to pay my rent, feed myself and otherwise take care of myself.  That would certainly take care of any of my future travel plans, expect a few trips to the food bank every month.  My health would go south, I could end up in hospital, perhaps dying prematurely. 

So really, how could my life be free, and how could I dare call myself free except that I'm lying, crazy, or both?

Well, first of all, I am free to serve.  This might seem like a bit of a paradox, but as a Christian who believes strongly in the power of love and truth, my work of serving vulnerable adults is an act of love.  It is for me a strong expression of my religious faith.  The freedom I enjoy is not so much a freedom to do what I desire and not suffer consequences but the freedom to do what is right, what is just, loving, merciful, kind...

There is something very sustaining about being responsible and caring for others.  It somehow helps throw the various disparate parts of my life into a harmonious working order.  Of course, I do credit this to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.  Okay, atheists, you don`t have to agree, but perhaps instead of categorically dismissing what you yourselves have never experienced, you could be a little bit generous and give me the benefit of the doubt.  Show a little humility and admit that you yourselves don`t really know?

This sense of freedom is what I receive each day as God's gift of his love for me, a gift he reaches out and extends to all, though few seem willing to accept.  As I walk in this freedom, a freedom of discipline, I see increasingly the image of Christ in others and the presence of God in nature.  I also desire justice for others because of the love that burns in my heart. 

And I feel free: free from the government, from my employers, from the advertising media, from scary people who try to threaten our wellbeing, from prejudice and hate, from the terror of consumerism, from the slavery to money and things.  Having given myself to God (or, love) I am free from everyone, though still free to serve in a spirit of love.

I simply refuse to wear their chains, I trample them underfoot as I walk on in a spirit of joy and gratitude.  No one is going to take that from me.  And I also pray that those who would try to break us would themselves be set free from those very chains that deny them their very heritage as human beings.