Freedom

Today, as you might have expected, I have been thinking about freedom. Today we celebrate the gift of freedom that we have been given in this country, and that got me thinking about freedom as a whole.

Freedom is one of those things that we often take for granted. When we have the fredom to do and say so many things without fear of retribution, we often go about our lives not recognizing what the cost of freedom really is.

But how about taking that one step further - moving beyond the freedom we celebrate on the fourth and thinking about the freedom we have been given by God.

This freedom came at a cost as well - the cost of Christ's life for us - and the blood that was spilled on Calvary has opened the door for all of God's creation to celebrate freedom - freedom from sin and death - so that we may live as the children of God.

And this freedom, well, all freedom, comes with responsibilites as well. The responsibilities to love as we have been loved, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to empower as we have been empowered, the bring the message of love and new life to those who have not experienced it for themselves.

So on this day of celebrating freedom, may we all recognize the cost of freedom, may we have our eyes opened to the responsibilites we have been given, and may we disern the gifts we have been given to live out these responsibilites in the most Christ-like way possible.