Free, Free Indeed! Or Not…

It has been wisely stated by someone, that “a beautiful and yet unrestricted river is nothing more than a nice pond”. When is a river FREE to be a river?

As a reminder of where we left off last time, we’re feasting on what the very best way to define FREEDOM might be. As I said earlier, FREEDOM, devoid of some consensus about the object’s ultimate purpose and design, is meaningless, if not irrational; a waste of time… or even deadly dangerous!

So, in so far as mankind is concerned, let’s pull up some chairs for feasting on the truths about the best parameters of FREEDOM. As mentioned before, the Bible poses an interesting and pertinent question of God, and of mankind, “What is man that You are mindful of him” (Psalm 8:4)?

On the most basic levels, what do you believe all of mankind has in common with one another? How exactly do you define the origins of mankind? And, as logic might have it, how do you then define the ends of mankind? Do you think these sorts of questions (and their possible answers) have any bearing on any thing at all?! We’ll look more closely into some repercussions as this multi-course feast continues.

Check it out: I’m going to serve up two ideas (or, better put, worldviews) that might help lovingly and truthfully polarize people’s thinking:

1) If mankind, as the Bible tells us, is the culmination of the Triune God of the universe’s creative act (Genesis 1, 2), then here is the very best definition of FREEDOM: “Jesus answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27; Exodus 20:30—“no other gods”; Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18).

2) If, on the other hand, mankind exists apart from God and as a result of a random collocation of molecules evolving over a godzillion years, and has as the ultimate end of being nothing more than food for worms, then here is the definition of FREEDOM: “Eat, drink and be merry; for tomorrow we die” (Ecclesiastes 8:15; 2:24; 1 Corthintians15:19)!

At the end of the day, these two concepts, and ultimately choices offered us in the way we will orchestrate our lives, are the only two choices that exist about mankind’s “origin, purpose, design, and ends”.

FREEDOM, as we’ve seen from the beginning, has certain restrictions associated with it. We’re talking about the “restrictions of every being’s origin, purpose, design, and ends”.

Are you okay with the two words and ideas, FREEDOM and RESTRICTION, not only coexisting, but being required of one another for the universe to have any order… and for you and me really and truly living life to the fullest?

See you at The Training Table very soon! And, unitl then, run the best race you can!!