For Freedom

Suppose you were trapped somewhere and had no way of getting out.  Suppose you spent ages in a dark, dank prison cell with chains that chafed you night and day.  Then one day, someone comes and unlocks the door, unchains your hands and feet, and tells you you're free.

You go, "Thanks, I appreciate it, but I think I'll just stay here.  I can really do without this freedom stuff."  ...And then proceed to put the chains back on and sit there.

Ridiculous, I know.

Except I've kind of done that with God.  Since I was a kid I've known salvation was about us being set free.  But I somehow got it in my mind that it would be wrong to live in freedom, as if it was somehow taking that freedom for granted.

So I sat down in my little cell and proceeded to chain myself back up with rules and more rules.  And then some more rules, just for good measure.

"Thanks, God, I know you said I was set free from the law, but I can really do without that freedom stuff."

Until one day Galatians 5:1 jumped out at me.  "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."  I realized I wasn't getting brownie points for staying in a straitjacket when I could be running through a field with my arms stretched out in the wind.  I was set free to. be. free.

Wouldn't it be insulting to Jesus, who paid such a high price to set me free from the law, if I turned around and kept living under the law?  He didn't just tell me I could be free; He deeply wanted me to be free.  My heart, all in a tremble, said that if that's what He wanted, then perhaps that's what I wanted too.

And that's where the glorious adventure began.