September 11
Scripture focus: Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. Galatians 5:1 (The Message)
I used to think freedom was spelled FROM. When I was a kid I liked to day dream about adult freedoms and these dreams included: freedom from having to brush my teeth, eat veggies, have only one dessert per day, go to school, do homework, read nonfiction. I also had a couple of TO fantasies. When I was three years old I went to a neighbor's house and tried to borrow sugar for my mom. The problem was that my mom didn't send me. I wanted to eat sugar plain, and my mom said no, so this was my childish scheme to circumvent her authority. My neighbor, in an effort to be accommodating, called my mom and asked, "How much sugar?" because at age three, I had no clue how to answer that question. All I knew is that I wanted to be free TO eat whatever I wanted, including sugar straight up.
The rest of the story is blocked from my memory. I have no clue how or if I extricated myself from that situation. I seem to remember fleeing the scene. As an adult I have to wonder how I got out of the house undetected to roam the street begging for sugar.
However that story turned out, I have discovered that as an adult freedom has little to do with getting my personal preferences met on a regular basis.
True freedom is realized as I learn how to live within my true God-created self in relationship with others and in keeping with God's prevailing purposes. If you're still living in the fantasy world of wanting what you want when you want it, maybe this sounds like a bummer definition of freedom.
So let me illustrate. If I gave into my childhood fantasies of eating sugar plain, never brushing my teeth, avoiding all veggies, eating as many desserts as suited my fancy, never going to school or doing homework, and reading only fiction (not literature, more the smutty kind), would I be free?
I certainly wouldn't be free to go into a regular store and buy a reasonable size of britches.
I wouldn't be free to pursue God's big dreams for my life because I would lack the education to do so.
I wouldn't be free to smile, because my teeth would be disgusting.
I wouldn't be free to grow and change because I wouldn't be reading good books on things that might help me transform -- like scripture, books on boundaries, courses on the Christ-centered twelve steps, etc.
So were my childhood fantasies dreams of freedom, or simply developmentally appropriate experimentations with getting to know myself? Through the gift of guidance, I have learned that the sweet life isn't spelled SUGAR. But it took a lot of people loving me well to figure that out. May our lives be truly sweet today as we learn to live and love within the limits of God's prevailing purposes.
Recommended reading: 2 Chronicles 31-33
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3 comments:
Still loving how God speaks through you to us in the wonderful stories you tell, Teresa!
I love those stories also. I too used to daydream of freedom. Freedom from the drinking & yelling & fighting & hurting & neglect to anywhere because I always knew that my homelife was not right. I knew that everyone did not live as I did so I daydreamed and day sleeped and just about anything to escape. When I was old enough, I thought I was escaping, but I ran from one nightmare to another. And to top it all off, no one in either place knew I had left where I was & was where I went. I think that was when I finally realized that unless I was showing an all "A" report card or it was a "dress up" holiday, I was ignored. The next time I left, it wasn't the best situation but I was introduced to Christ. And that's not too bad in the midst of very bad.
Schweeeet post T..
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