Freedom. Liberated from slavery, released from captivity, made whole, complete. Set free. It is my personal opinion that one cannot truly appreciate freedom in all it’s fullness unless they have felt the depths of bondage. Bondage. It’s like a small cell, say 3’ by 3’, too small to sit or lay. You can’t ever be truly comfortable. There is no window, but a peep hole to the outside world. The walls can even be painted with pretty pictures, yet you know you are confined. The smell at times is overwhelming, putrid even. There is a door – bolted, chained, padlocked. You feel inept, powerless, unable to open it to procure your own freedom. You could be here at the hands of another, or on your own accord, it doesn’t matter. You are here all the same.
I think a lot about freedom. Not just the 4th of July kind of freedom, although I am grateful for the liberties that this free country affords me. I mean the freedom of one who says I once was bound, but now I am free. Remembering what it was like to be locked in a cell with no apparent way out. Remembering what it felt like to be overwhelmed in thought, emotion, and body. Pressed on all sides, longing for true freedom. That person was me. I have experienced that freedom to great depths. So on this Independence Day, it is my hope, my wish, my prayer that wherever you are bound, you would experience freedom. True, deep, lasting freedom. There is a way. He is the way…
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