Murray Smith
In early July, as America’s ‘big birthday’ drew close, I‘d noticed the volume of messaging along the lines of ‘freedom’ had been intense! Maybe the ‘freedom’ focus was just on my radar, but it certainly appeared everybody was speaking, writing or calling attention to the importance of freedom! When 4th July came, which of course in America, commemorates the thirteen original colonies separating from Great Britain in 1776, it kind of took it up another notch!
‘Freedom’ was the Founding Fathers motivation for provoking the American Revolution with their “Declaration of Independence.” Drafted and re-drafted by Thomas Jefferson to the satisfaction of a supervising committee and ultimately Congress, Jefferson articulated the colonists’ right to rebel against the British government to establish their own, based on the premise that all men are created equal and have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Freedom is the essence of the Declaration of Independence…along with equality, justice, rule of law, limited government and right to refuse an oppressive government.
Regardless of race or creed, human beings crave freedom. Being controlled, manipulated, enslaved or oppressed is anathema to our soul.
The fact is, laws won’t ever provide the freedom we crave! I’ve heard it said that America contains the best and worst of everything there is. Maybe so. Today, given the best intentions of the Founding Fathers of the United States, this ‘land of the free, home of the brave’, offers scant testimony to their dream of a society founded upon freedom. Worldwide, this desperate reality exists -being ‘truly free’ cannot be orchestrated or decreed by legislation…but actually, neither can laws steal it, since true freedom resides inside an individual’s heart!
That point was highlighted for me reading “The Heavenly Man”, a stirring book describing the life of radical Chinese Christian church leader, Brother Yun. He literally lost every ‘freedom’ under an oppressive government intent on extinguishing faith and punishing him for crimes against the state. Those ‘crimes’ were for doing good, bringing hope to countless bruised fellow citizens crushed under a ruthless regime. Imprisoned, he lost every right, suffered unspeakably cruel deprivations, with starvation and tortures meant to break him. However, Yun remained free…more free than his tormentors! “I learned to understand that the presence of God was my refuge,” he said, describing what sustained him.
How free are you…from fears, anxious thoughts, guilt, insecurity, from personal problems and struggles? That freedom which Yun experienced, transcends life’s ups and downs and it can be anyone’s, through personal relationship with Jesus who said, “Whoever the Son sets free will be free indeed.”
Jesus took it further claiming that knowing Him, would be the only way a person could understand truth and experience total freedom, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
People seek freedom through pursuing things they think will make them happy only to inevitably discover how fragile that is…happiness dependent on favourable ‘happenings’, is not freedom at all – God’s freedom is like having summer in your heart, even if it’s a blizzard outside!
