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jn_en_2010_08_13

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Balance and Responsibility V - Freedom ...

Friday, August 13, 2010. Does Responsibility contradict freedom? Freedom means that you can do, what you want. But does that contradict the duties which responsibility will put into your life? Anyway I wanted to ask wether we really want to be responsible for anything, since that seems to carry strong demands. What do you think?

Freedom of Choice

There are some basic points to make with respect to freedom and responsibility. When you are completely free, there is nothing which limits you. Then you can go, where yo want to go. You might sleep, when you want to sleep (as long as you want in the morning). You might have parties in the evenings. You can go on holidays or travel to get to know other countries. Freedom means options and possibilities …

Freedom also means the freedom of choice. You can choose to go into Japan, and not into the US. You might choose to stay in the UK, or you return to your home country India. But when you stay, you do not leave. So the choice to stay limits your options. You cannot change the choice every day (there are physical limitations to your speed of making choices, limiting your freedom).

You have the freedom to make a commitment. But a commitment is a limitation of choices. Do you call it freedom to limit your freedom? It is a freedom to keep a commitment. So it is a sign of freedom, to stay within chosen limitations. Is is more freedom, to break chosen limitations or to keep them? In some sense it is both the same, since you do the decision yes/no again and again. But after breaking a commitment once (choosing in freedom to break it), you cannot go back to it easily. After the one decision to break up, in many cases you do not have the freedom to reconcile easily. So this choice will limit your freedom to go back, but it might bring other choices which do not go along with the commitment and in this sense it might add to your freedom.

We need choices of commitment!

We really need clear choices of commitment which are then kept. We need people who exercise their freedom to choose responsibility. Otherwise we end up with a bunch of individuals who act completely egoistic and do not care about anything. Caring always is a choice of commitment.

The bible is full of the choices which people do caring for others. The whole story of Jesus is such a story full of choices. The life and letters of the apostles reflect freedom and responsibility. They reflect freedom and love, the freedom of faith.

Jesus invites us to become truly free (John 8, 36). This is reached by a commitment to him, by entering a life of faith. Freedom is reached by a commitment. This is the freedom of love, the freedom of dedication, the freedom of faith. There is a deep truth behind this, the insight that freedom only stays free if it chooses a responsible commitment to the source of life. ... more texts

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