Faith Venture

A significant belief in America, and probably in much of the world, holds that freedom means “I can do what I want, when I want, and to whom I want.” When you ponder this on its own merits, it sounds adolescent.

I once pondered the question of freedom from this dichotomy, “freedom from…” versus “freedom to…”

Then I discovered Paul’s letter to the Galatians which discusses the idea of freedom from the point of view of the Spirit. I wrote my first book on that topic (mired amongst some old files on a backup hard drive somewhere).

Two recent thoughts from the Plough Daily Dig:

What if freedom is the opportunity to do what’s right?

From philosopher King-Ho Leung.

For Sartre, as for Augustine, freedom is not about the kinds of options we have and make in life or even our very ability to choose what options to take. We do not become free because of the sheer number of alternatives we are given or because of the choices we make in life. Rather, freedom pertains to how one pursues meaning in life: it is not about what we are or what choices we make but how we make them and how we live our lives.

From David Foster-Wallace.

There are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of wanting and achieving. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people, and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom.

Meditate on these important thoughts.

Every year I suggest that all Americans take some time to read a few things to refresh our memories about the founding of our country. It’s probably not a bad practice for all of you who do not live here just for the ideals.

Read 

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Preamble to the Constitution
• Actually the entire Constitution
• If not all, at least the first 10 amendments—the Bill of Rights
• Bonus points—read The Federalist Papers

These documents are full of compromises—something that has made it last so long. And something we seem unwilling to do this past decade or so.

There are people who try to make a rule to proscribe every possible way to live a life. Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with not only the 10 Commandments but a total of 613 laws. Many of those made a lot of sense to a huge group of recent slaves now loose and on their own in the desert. Raising pigs would have destroyed their way of life. Eating shellfish would have killed them.

First Century Jewish teachers added many more rules trying to keep up with changing times. Jesus often talked about the burdens the Pharisees were laying o the people with all these additional laws.

Then Jesus came. During his final instructions to his followers, he said that he would leave them with one new commandment. Not 614, but 1. Love one another as I have loved you. Do this and people will know you are my followers.

The Apostle Paul explained this in his letter to the Galatians calling it freedom from the law. (He explained it in many other places, too.)

We humans try to make it hard by over-thinking. It’s a simple concept just hard to live:

Love one another as Jesus loved his followers (and us). The extension of the love was giving up his life for them (us).

I listened to a podcast interview on dialectical behavior therapy. The psychologist stated that people diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder do not have an overwhelmingly strong ego. They have a great fear of being ordinary. I can think of several examples without straining my memory.

These are people who crave power and status. Many of us have a little of that. As Ryan Holliday wrote in The Daily Stoic, “You’d think that the more powerful you are, the more freedom you’d have. The more money and success you have, the more you can do. You’d think that being a millionaire or being a celebrity or being the CEO would finally unshackle you from all the obnoxious and annoying constraints of being a ‘regular’ person…”

Maybe you have had those thoughts at times. Holliday continues, “How wrong this is. How wrong this has always been.”

Freedom longings populate the world in this era. In America a weird sense of what constitutes freedom has recently evolved. No one can tell me what to do, when to do it, or how to do it, any time or any where.

Paul tried valiantly to describe freedom in the spirit in his writing to the Galatians and Romans and other places. He fell a little short of clarity. Or maybe it’s difficult to understand.

I picked up this thought from Holliday in The Daily Stoic, “It was Eisenhower who said that freedom is really better described as the, ‘opportunity for self-discipline.’ ”

We must learn to tell ourselves that what we want to do is neither moral or ethical or just or beneficial. We must aim again.