THE WAY OF FREEDOM

Recently in meditation I was considering the cost and way of freedom. Freedom requires an ongoing faith with surrender at every twist and turn of the journey. Without believing, and without certainty, and not just from nature, or philosophical argument and decision, but also from the inner structure of faith itself, we cannot come to understand freedom. Without believing, nothing is understood. Without surrendering, nothing is believed. And no one surrenders without making a real decision. What is essential is invisible.

When doubt wells up inside us we become like captured and enslaved people of the past. Though given freedom and the choice to go free, many remained in the ‘security of captivity.’ When Moses was sent to free the Israelites from Egypt and from the cruel Pharaoh, they barely got out of town before the security of their previous captivity hit them. “Leave us alone. We would rather serve the Egyptians. That’s better than dying in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:12). There was a preference for security over freedom. There still is. This is the very preference that attacks and influences us as a consumer and materialistic society. The security ‘of things’ is more important than the debt and bondage incurred to have those things.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus