Freedom.
It is a word and concept often celebrated in our culture. It can be attached to anything that requires a little "umph" to be appealing. Like many words, the meaning of freedom has been finagled into many molds, requiring loads of explanation each time it is used.
And yet, what a concept it is.
To be freed from something, you must first be enslaved to it. Whatever "it" is takes up every nook and cranny of your life. It consumes you, typically it begins to devastate each square inch.
An addiction, a sour relationship, a thought pattern, a wrong turn. Quickly, these things become the center of our attention, leaving little room for actual living.
And although this thing is ripping away every piece of who you once were, a sort of Stockholm Syndrome develops: not only can you not imagine life without it, you don't know how things ever moved before.
But maybe others take notice, those who surround you with love and truth. And maybe the power of what is inside of them is able to rip a hole in the pseudo-shelter this thing has created, allowing a stream of light to peek inside.
You can grab that light. You can hold on to it for your life.
Together, you can begin the journey to freedom from slavery. The journey is long, and sometimes you return to your captor in fear of what is ahead, but each time, you return to the path leading away from it, gaining wisdom and strength from those who are fighting for and with you.
If you know anything today, know that there is freedom, and not just in an ethereal sort of way, but in a real, meat and bones, powerfully secure sort of way.
We fight for our freedom, and when we need a break, others fight with us, the Spirit fights with us.
There is freedom, and it is not only the end, but the beginning, and the in between as well. It permeates, it transforms, it marches ahead.
