"A hero," Bob Dylan noted, "is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with freedom," to which I say "amen." Like cheap grace, freedom without responsibility is a sham. It is a wolf of self-indulgence dressed up in a sheep's clothes because real freedom is always bigger than self. It must be. Otherwise we would not be free!
Freedom is costly. It always has been, whether we're measuring its cost in terms of lives, dollars, or brokenness. I admire our veterans more with each passing day, and, in one sense of the word, we can measure the cost of freedom by counting our dead, which total 645,965 since our War for Independence. 2/3 of a million people have died to preserve our way of life, or to give other people the gift of freedom too. Some of these men and women were gung-ho, some were reluctant warriors, some were doing what they had to do... but each of them died for a cause greater than themselves. Some of them had great faith, some of them struggled with faith, and some of them didn't think much about it... but they all believed that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to a people or to a man. We've buried a lot of heroes, but the cost of freedom doesn't end there. Millions of children have grown up without a dad, or with dads who were never quite the same. My father fought in WWII. He flew a transport plane to the battle lines. He brought needed supplies and troops to the front... and he carried men back to England. He saw things that men aren't supposed to see. He helped liberate those enslaved in concentration camps, and he lost a Co-Pilot, named Kenny. He was not technically wounded, but he left part of his soul in Europe... and he seldom talked about the war for the rest of his life. He, and millions like him, lost their innocence completely.
Praise God for every hero who knew that real freedom is costly! Decorate their graves, give them honor flights, embrace their journeys, and if you can't understand their stories, at least understand that they have a story. Freedom is never free, but war is not its greatest cost, and certainly not its greatest threat. What threatens our freedom more gravely, it seems to me... is our own self-indulgent immaturity. If freedom is seen as a license to sin- if it's little more than permission to feed our own fancies and desires- if it means that we can all "eat. drink, and be merry," Rome will surely burn because freedom demands responsibility! We are never free FROM responsibility. We are only free TO serve, and freedom will not endure without honor, service, and sacrifice. It cannot endure in a self-centered and childish form because honor, service, and sacrifice are the responsibilities of free people. Teens and immature adults see freedom as a license to live irresponsibly and irreverently... but these are the very behaviors that undermine freedom... because our greatest jailer is SELF. Yes, this is the truth of it. We are enslaved by our own desires, fears, resentments, expectations, and pain, and these demons, more than any outside dictator, will be the death of us... or at least of our freedom.
Doing what we want, whenever we want, is not freedom because we are chained to "self." Not recognizing this is one of the reasons many never get free. The other reason is that many people think that the spiritual axiom- we're only free when we're free in Christ- is an oxymoron! They don't get it. They can't understand how they can get free by surrendering... but it's a great and undeniable truth. If you want to be free from the Omnipotent Baby you can "self," if you're still running from shadows, if you're tired of wearing different masks, if you're still afraid that no one would love you if they knew you, if you're in the hands of a demon named "ism," give it up now! Turn to God. Quit harboring the illusion that you will be free if you just run fast enough. If you want to be free from "self," come to Jesus, who said, "If you are weary and heavy laden, come to me... and I will give you rest"... for "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Buying more things will only weigh you down. Committing more sins will only add to your burden. Turn to Jesus. After all, as he bled and died, he understood that freedom is the costliest thing on earth... and in heaven! Amen.
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