I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
Your Next Free Act May Be Your First
You’re Free, Right?
We live in a free country. You’re free to do whatever you want. The stuff you want is yours for next to nothing – free.
Focus on the Right ‘Free’
Let’s set two of these ‘frees’ aside quickly and focus on the one that matters most to you, personally – or should.
It’s a free country, right? Nope. A nation that is systematically killing off hundreds of thousands of its children and now pushing its elders into early graves is in bondage to sin and death, not ‘free’.
All that free stuff? Not so free. Many of the costs of producing it are externalized – damage to the Creation, for example – borne by the human laborers fed into the manufacturing process as ‘resources,’ put off onto future generations – or are unquantifiable opportunity costs we are less and less capable of counting. Free stuff has a price.
It’s YOU, Free
But, at least YOU are free. Not so fast. Not if your definition of freedom is wrong. Not if you aren’t putting up a fight for freedom. Not if you aren’t supported in freedom by external and internal structures. Again, let’s consider two of these ‘freedoms’ briefly so as to focus on the one that matters most to you, personally – or should.
But if You’re Wrong…
If you are wrong about what freedom IS, then you are not free. It is essential to know the truth about freedom in order to pursue it, achieve it, and set others free. If you think freedom is a right conferred by law; is a choice about which button to push, or which shoe to buy; is a quality of life you can enhance with money; is an escape from obligation, space, time, physics, or other constraints, or has nothing to do with virtue, you’re simply wrong. And your freedom is dangerously compromised as a result.
Or if You Lack Support for Freedom…
Can you be free without the support of divine grace, human organizations and institutions, excellent education, taboos and social norms, friendships and family bonds, physical and moral laws, an accurate historical narrative, demands and duties, or hard work? The answer is no in every case.
Your external atmosphere must be THICK with all these supports. Otherwise, you will inhale the illusion of freedom, but not experience the reality of freedom. Your infrastructure for freedom is generated by all that hard work of adjusting to and appropriating the external structures.
No Freedom Without a Fight
Freedom grows by every act of freedom, so let’s turn to that condition for freedom.
Fight for Your Freedom
Fulton Sheen said, “Free will is a gift, but freedom is a conquest.” Are you engaged in a battle for your own freedom? You’d better be, or you’re already losing it. Who is fighting against you? Demons, and those who have given over to demons the gift of their own free will. You resist your freedom yourself. Every support for freedom but one can be its enemy – your enemy – in this fight.
You are Fighting for Your Life
Though demons shouldn’t be minimized – as they are actual, active hostile forces arrayed against you – if you stand under the constant protection of Christ in His Church, they will not prevail against you. Since every human support is, well, human, the air you must breathe to be free is full of toxins.
Your Freedom Invites Others to be Free
Notice the broken families, distorted narratives, utter confusion of social norms and standards, institutionalized bondage, education for impotence. The bad news is, your freedom is under assault from every possible angle. The good news is, Christ in His Church promises victory, if you will fight the fight. In fact, the fight, the work, the struggle is the making of you, free.
I Invite You to be You, Free!
You, Free is my attempt to come along side as your companion in that struggle. May God bless you readers!
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