Freedom...

There is no better place to be in 4th of July that in US. Any city big or small is infected with a spirit for celebration and festivity. In almost any activity there is also a reminder of this amazing gift, which this country proudly declares as one of its corner stones foundation… freedom.

I think this is true. Reading history and the lives of people like William Penn and thousands of anonymous pilgrims… men and women who dared to start all over again or die… everything with one condition: nobody should force anybody to submit to their core beliefs. Freedom; even if freedom is also a core belief.

Being an immigrant living in US I admire this freedom. I share its value and join the forces that seek and sacrifice for it. Being a Christian I believe this freedom is a gift of God that transcends the political to the physical, social, and emotional to the spiritual, as His ultimate gift is freedom from sin and death through the blood of Jesus Christ. But precisely, being a man that has been set free to submit to God and think; there is something that bothers me about the ‘overcompensation’ of the use of the concept of freedom in this holyday.

In one side it seems to me that the message is sometimes wrong, it seems to say that freedom does not exist outside of this beautiful country; that US owns freedom and real freedom only exists here. I think freedom is far bigger than any country or even the sum of all of it together… as mentioned, freedom is a gift of God and He gives it freely to anyone who ask for it. I believe He gives this same gift in different ways all over the world and we would do well in recognizing its various expressions… freedom of money, freedom of worries for success or for tomorrow, freedom of individualism, freedom of comfort, freedom of criticism…

I the other side, it seems that the concept of freedom is used to advance our own agenda; there is one message using freedom to justify dark desires, and other one using it to force others to think the same way we do.

Real freedom is rooted in love. Real love. The love defined by God, the love that does not force us to do anything unwanted, the love that only seeks for good; that is revealed in goodness, in truth, and sacrifice. It’s love that does not boast and criticizes others but serves with patience hoping for real freedom in the heart to choose. It is love that does not keep account of the wrong suffered but forgives. It is the love that obeys, that submits… because of love.

As individuals, as families, as communities, as countries… we may experience truth, real love, and therefore … freedom.