“Just let me do what I want to do!” screamed David.
“Uurgh! I can’t even do what I want to do, no freedom at all! If I don’t get to do what I rightfully want to do, I will not live here. I will pack my stuff go somewhere else!” fumed Martia.
“Everyone is trying to control me. I don’t care if they give me my freedom or not. I am just going to take it. After all it rightfully belongs to me,” remarked Justin.
“What kind of life is this? I can’t even enjoy myself! My friends are enjoying themselves at parties and in the pubs every weekend and I don’t have the freedom to go. I wish I got my freedom…” sighed Rebecca.
“Oh, my parents are very understanding. They let me do what I want. They don’t restrict me in any way. I can go out late at night, stay out the whole night and do what I want. I just have to tell them where I am going and what time I will be coming back. They will let me go. I love my parents for giving me the freedom I want,” bragged Jeremy.
“Thank heavens, I am the CEO of this company. I can do what I want to do when I want to do it. I make the decisions here and all my subordinates follow. I have all the freedom in the world,” exclaimed Melvin.
“My husband listens to me. He does not question me at all. I am so lucky I have the freedom to go where I want to go and do what I want to do. Even if I laze around the whole day he will not say anything. He loves me that much,” boasted Maloney.
Does this sound familiar to you? ‘Freedom’ What is it really?
Every human being longs to be free. It is the innate longing of the soul which is trapped in the human body since birth. Freedom, freedom, freedom! Everyone wants freedom; freedom in speech, freedom in equality, freedom in human rights, freedom in everything under the sun. Where it is not given, it is forcefully taken by those who are ‘valiant’. “It’s my ‘right’,” they say.
I do agree that it is one’s right to have freedom or to be free. Yes! That is why God gave us a free will. He does not interfere with it. But, at the same time He has not left us as orphans to do as we please. He gave us the ‘Ten Commandments’, sent us His Son Jesus to do the role modeling and sent us His Holy Spirit to guide us. Well let us look at what parents do.
Will any mother give her child a knife when the child cries that she wants to play with it? Will any father give his child his car keys, when his child demands that he wants to drive it? What would we say when the child cries and throws a tantrum saying that he/she does not have any freedom? The same mother will give the knife to her daughter when she is mature and knows when, for what purpose and how to use it. The same father will give his son, his car keys when he is older and has got the car license. But, of course before the mum let’s her daughter use the knife or the dad lets his son drive the car, they will show them how to use it, then they will supervise their child’s usage of it guiding them and teaching them the right way to handle it. Parents wait till they know that their children are capable and mature before they give them freedom.
However, freedom in the hands of an immature person, or a selfish person or one without self-control or self-discipline is unimaginably disastrous. One’s freedom will certainly affect those around him or her either positively or negatively. Whenever I think of ‘Freedom’ I shudder at the consequences which would take effect when we mishandle it. Oh, it is so scary, because with freedom comes responsibility.
Josh McDowell in his writings says thus about freedom, “ To me, freedom is not just going out and doing what you want to do. Anyone can do that, and lots of people are doing it. Freedom is, ‘having the power to do what you know you ought to do’. Most people know what they ought to do but they don’t have the power to do it. They are in bondage.”
Wow! That is something for us to reflect upon. I suppose that is what real freedom is all about, ‘being able to do what we ought to do with responsibility and self-control’.
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