Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, friends old and new. It's Ramsey here. I think maybe I experienced real freedom for the first time yesterday. Have you ever felt truly free? I had nowhere that I needed to be, nothing that I needed to do other than live in that moment. I was not being pushed or pulled or moved. I was sitting in my favorite blue chair. But it felt more like I was floating than sitting. I did not feel empty. In fact, I felt full afterwards. It made me ask myself, what is freedom? Where does it come from? How can I keep this great feeling even when I become busy again? Freedom is one of those words and concepts that lots of people have lots of different ideas about. Freedom might be hot dogs and fireworks on the 4 July. Freedom might be the breaking of bonds, of addiction or slavery. Or freedom might even be streaking the lawn like we used to do back at the University of Virginia. Just watch out for those little chain fence. Is there a real trip hazard? Maybe when you think of freedom, you can see and hear Mel Gibson yelling it through his orange face paint. The point is that freedom is many things to many people. But I think it is hard to really find and really keep. So let's talk about it for a while. One way to think of freedom is the ability to do and act the way you want. Here at America, you can drive your car or walk down the street and go shopping wherever you like, but you're supposed to obey the speed limit and wait for your turn at the intersection. So are you truly free if you can't blow through a stop sign whenever you want to? Personal freedoms in a functioning society are limited for safety and the rights of others. Another way to think of freedom is the ability to think and say what you want. Ten years ago, this one was maybe a no brainer. But today, with the interwebs and social media, it's an ongoing battle over free thought, free speech, and expression. Sure, we all ought to feel free to chime in our opinions about things, but what about things that might be hurtful to others or things that might not be true and certainly unprovable? Where should the lines be drawn for those things? The travel lanes and traffic signals for social interactions are a whole lot less obvious and straightforward than those on our roadways. So when we're talking about freedom, we can think of it in terms of personal freedom or societal freedom. And those two things collide sometimes. What happens when your freedom gets in the way of someone else's freedom? Or worse, when their freedom gets in the way of your freedom. The most fundamental rule of safe driving is that no two cars can occupy the same space at the same time. Are we saying that no two people can occupy complete freedom at the same time? Lately, I've been living out this wacky idea that personal freedom comes from obedience to God. Doesn't make any sense. If freedom is the ability to think or do whatever I want, then how can it come from obedience? Obedience to God or whoever or whatever else? But here's the thing. Yeah, we have the freedom to sin. But I believe that true freedom is the freedom from sin. You can think of sin as, like, a monster or a force of nature. It's all the stuff that seems appealing and good and fun in the moment, but then makes you feel like crap and hungover after you're done with it. Or more like, after it's done with you. At the beginning of the year, I started doing this thing called Exodus 90. A bunch of guys band together for 90 days and challenged themselves and each other to do certain things and not do other things, all in the name of getting closer to God and their families and each other and leaving bad habits behind. Why did I feel free yesterday? Certainly it had something to do with recently, having been relieved of my professional responsibilities, but it was a lot more than that. I believe it's because I haven't done anything really wrong, stupid or terrible lately. That's a really low bar. I know. But I don't feel guilty or shame filled about anything. I think that's the main reason I felt free. I felt freedom from sin. Not that I'm a saint or that I'm perfect, but I felt the fruit of clean living. If personal freedom comes from obedience to God, then does societal freedom come from obedience to the law or to the government?
[00:03:37] I'm not so sure about that one. Here's the thing. I love and trust God. He's God. I know that he wants the best for me. I believe he wants the best for you too. And I hope that you believe it. But the government. Do I love and trust the government? Sort of. Maybe I want to. In an ideal world, we should be able to love and trust the government. You'll need to decide for yourself how ideal of a world we live in. I love our country. I love my community. I love my friends and family and neighbors. I want the best for them. I want to think and act the way that I want to. And I want them to think and act the way that they want to. What happens when those collide? I don't know. Honestly, I've been afraid for a long time about what other people would think about what I think about stuff. So I've stayed pretty quiet for a long time. Even now I worry that if I talk about God and talk about how God talks to me, that people will think I'm crazy. No, I don't hear voices, but why do I feel defensive even now? Am I not free? I have a lot of highly formed ideas about how the world works and what's going on in the world. I'm afraid that lots of people and governments don't believe and don't want to hear and don't want me to say what I believe to be true. There's got to be some kind of balance, a way and a place in which personal freedom can be enjoyed while societal freedom is not infringed. I don't claim to know the full answer, but here's something to try. Love. God is love. So if I'm obedient to God, I'm obedient to love. By definition, if we love God and love ourselves and love our families and friends and neighbors and communities and nations, then we'll try to do what is good and true. We won't be engaging the sin monster as much, and we won't be as hungover and feeling as lousy. We'll feel free. Part of that is making space for other people around us to live in love and do what they want. We can't and won't do everything we want to do but find freedom, and for today, that is enough.
