Jesus said: ‘The truth will set you free’. Many people today question whether there is a truth, or at least an absolute law of truth.
How many of us are free? How many of us breathe freely, live without stress, and have a spring in our step? How many Christians could claim to be free?
A man can be confined by prison walls,
Yet in spirit he can soar heavenwards.
No iron-barred cell can ever constrain
Those firm in the hope of faith’s rewards.
A man crippled by locked-in syndrome,
May curse his fate as he lives in his mind,
But he might hear the Spirit’s quiet voice,
And spend his days praying for mankind.
A man may feel trapped by his kith and kin,
And think his humdrum lot suffocating.
Tempting to throw in the towel and run,
Only to find old ghosts come haunting.
A man may strive to gather in riches,
Thinking that money will see him set free,
Only to find that life’s woes still beset,
And wealth brings its share of misery.
A man can pay dearly for what he seeks,
And find himself bereft after long years.
We are made in His image and likeness;
Cheating our nature reaps bitter tears.
Is freedom then avoidance of life’s cost?
Or having control of one’s own affairs?
Is it perhaps in lack of restrictions?
Possessed by those who jettison cares?
To grasp freedom is not to cease loving,
As if to dodge the demands that love brings.
Freedom is spawned by accepting His truth,
Engaging with life and all its strings.
If you shrink from responsibilities,
And choose convenience in all you do,
You’ll be free of many obligations,
And free of meaning and value too.
To own freedom then is to pay its price:
To align one’s life to His agenda.
To say ‘Lord’ and surrender one’s ego:
“Your will, not mine”, our only mantra.