Seeing my daughters get into their teenage years is an interesting experience.
By daughters, I mainly refer to the first two, the second of whom will hit those years at her next birthday.
It’s interesting watching them because they’re good girls on the whole (as a number of parents are honour bound to say). Yet there is an itch about them. No, not that kind of itch, they wash thoroughly every day. I’m referring to an itch to want to do their own thing. Have a bit more freedom. Get to have their fun when they want to. Not be shackled down by the requirements placed upon them.
I am very familiar with that itch. There was an allure to adulthood that gave the impression of freedom. Let off the leash. Able to do whatever you wanted to do. I remember the day I left home to go to university. Sure, I was there to study, and I wasn’t of the ilk to look to completely lose all restraint and dabble in every vice going. At the same time, here I was in my own room, with my own stuff and for the first time money of my own. Wowsers. Now I was going to really see what it was to live the life of true freedom.
It didn’t take too long to see that as a great illusion.
Thankfully, there was help during that reality check phase of my life which only took about seven or eight years to truly sink in. Seven or eight years and a fair number of mega mistakes. What helped was the wake up call to again see what freedom was really about.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)
It is a relief to see freedom as something that takes away from an unpleasant state of being. Plenty rightly rejoice when they are free from those elements. Free from addiction, or oppression, or fear. The trouble is, however, when freedom is just left to that, there can be a slow slipping into other things that might end up with a new condition of slavery.
The picture of freedom given by Paul here is one that fulfils what freedom can be about in its fullness. Free to serve because of love. Perhaps that straining at the leash can be properly expressed in this type of freedom.
It’s good to see examples of that type of freedom in the lives of others who clearly walked through the journey of understanding what that means. I have the privilege of witnessing a number of men and women who work that out through their lifestyles. Their generosity of character and spirit and lack of need to embroil themselves to petty issues is such an appealing display of that freedom. Better still is seeing how they get on with this type of freedom without fuss and hassle, never bringing attention to what they’re doing, only keen to follow the Example.
My desire is that my daughters and their peers will likewise observe this approach to life and for themselves grab onto what freedom is all about.
(Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 