Like many, I’ve been glued to the daily newsfeed as the war in Ukraine roars on. Just a few weeks ago, the almost unanimous opinion was that Ukraine would fall within days. Then news broke that the US was having a meeting with Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy, to discuss how to evacuate him from the country. This all seemed to make sense. Zelenskyy would lose, and quickly, so let’s get him out.
But then everything took an unexpected turn.
“The fight is here,” Zelenskyy announced. “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
His words sparked a change in how people viewed the nation of Ukraine and the people that populate it. Since then Zelenskyy and others have continued to defy all odds and fight back their much larger and better equipped aggressive neighbor. Their homes are being torn down. Their people are dying. But they fight on.
However, it’s not the fighting and the battle that most of us are obsessed with watching in our newsfeeds. It’s the cause of freedom that has enthralled us. They are risking all and laying down their lives to protect this thing called freedom. But what really is freedom?
Most of us never feel the need to actually define freedom because it seems so basic and instinctual. It’s like defining hunger or thirst. The desire for it emerges almost as early as the ability to speak. Most kids have “I do it myself” in their list of earliest sentences and “No!” among their first words. Both are expressions of a desire to do something separate and distinct from the will and interference of another. They are, in short, words of freedom. As we get older, we find ever more sophisticated ways of expressing this desire, but freedom is not something we are taught. It is something we are born to want.
At its root freedom is the ability to do things. All sorts of things. We want to live, move around, believe and talk about things. It’s the sorts of things that are famously enshrined in the American Bill of Rights. Freedom is how we describe our ability to do these things. But ability is only the beginning of what freedom is.
Mixed into this “ability” is self-sufficiency. We don’t just want the ability to eat. That would not be freedom. We want to feed ourselves. At some point, when you and I were all babies, our mothers tried to feed us solid food. And a short time after that, we attempted to take that spoon into our own hands. The result was always the same: we made a mess. We actually got less food when we first did this, not more. We spilled that sloppy rice cereal mix all over our faces and clothes. But we didn’t care. We wanted to feed ourselves. Why? Because of freedom. Freedom is the ability to do something ourselves without interference (or even help) from others.
But, of course, just because we can do something ourselves does not mean we are free. No child would say they are free because they washed the dishes. In fact, they may say they feel less free because they had the ability to do dishes on their own. Desire is also an important component of freedom. That’s why children learn to say, “No!” so early on. Freedom means you have the ability to attempt a desire. Just think back to when you learned to tie your shoes. It didn’t matter that the whole family had to wait as you struggled with your laces. You needed the space and time to attempt the freedom of movement. Even if you later needed help, being able to first attempt tying your own shoes was a taste of freedom. That freedom rang ever louder when you finally did succeed in tying your shoes, but freedom began with the attempt of a desire.
But with freedom also comes consequences. Want to feed yourself? You will first spill food all over your face. Want to start a business? You might fail and go bankrupt. Freedom and consequences go hand in hand. They are inseparable. In that sense, freedom is akin to risk. Without risk, freedom is like unsalted french fries. What would be the point? Freedom means you are free to make mistakes, fail, and suffer consequences. But it means you are also free to enjoy the benefits. This is all part of freedom.
Frequently I and others have written on topics designed to give you spiritual freedom. We don’t always use the vocabulary of freedom, but freedom is, nonetheless, the core of what Jesus came to offer and so it is what we are always talking about on this blog.
The basic story of the Bible is that all of us are doomed to die. This shouldn’t surprise you, of course, as everyone does indeed die. But the Bible describes God as offering freedom from this death. We gain this freedom because someone fought and died for it. This is our most common topic on this blog, because it is the first and most important step in finding true spiritual freedom.
But we’ve also frequently written on topics designed to help you be spiritually self-sufficient. By that I mean, our team here has aimed to give you tools to help you feed yourself. Like with physical food, it is a messy and inefficient process when you first begin. But practice and practice again, and you will learn how to do things like talk with God, read the Bible, and even start a small group of like minded believers to help you continue to grow. Learning to spiritually feed yourself, will give you greater spiritual freedom.
But there will be challenges to this journey. Another way of putting it, is there will be consequences. If you choose Jesus, you will get the rewards of Jesus. But you will have to fight against a lot of temptations, distractions, and difficulties to fully realize those rewards in your life. He will not always spoon feed you truth, joy, and peace. He will give you the spoon and empower you to do it yourself. Jesus is going to let you fight your war. He has promised to supply you with the weapons you need to win it. But he will let you fight it. In other words, he is giving you spiritual freedom. But freedom is surely something all of us believe is worth fighting for.
Doug Bender is an I Am Second writer and small groups coach. He developed many of the small group tools found at iamsecond.com and has coached churches, organizations, and individuals to use I Am Second groups to share the message of Jesus with their friends and family. He also works with I Am Second's parent organization, e3 Partners, as a church planter and pastor in countries such as Ethiopia, Colombia, and the US. Doug and his wife, Catherine, have four children: Bethany, Samuel, Isabella, and Jesse.
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