Free or Slave? ...

Friday, Oct 14, 2016. Yesterday morning I woke up with a big headache at about 4 am. I had dreamed badly - basically about some things which I find difficult in my workplace. Things like that will happen to many people, but I also realized that my thoughts rotate around the problems in a very unpleasant way. I found myself being a slave of my negative thoughts about some things. But how free am I to stop thinking like that? Am I free?

How free am I? …

The question of freedom is a good one. How free are we from our problems? How free are we from goals we have set - or others have set? Are we free to let some money go just because we need to do something right? Are we free to let some fame go just because we get into an unhealthy dependence of it? Are we free to do what is good? Let us listen to words written by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Christians in Rome:

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (from Romans 6)

A lot in the Old and New Testament is about freedom. God wants us to come to faith by a free choice. We do not have to come. And when we come, he free's us from a lot of dependencies. We are made free to be truly human, and nothing else. This is something quite remarkable, really fantastic and amazing!

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Freedom to do good …

Are we free to do what is good? Currently I am trying to resort my professional work, to do what is good. It is not quite so simple - when you run a big group there are demands from all sides trying to catch some time. Can you just let a part of it go? Not really, there is a critical mass in some things, then you would have to give up the whole thing completely or search for alternatives. I just say all this to clarify that doing good on a responsible level is not just about one action only, but about the whole setup and how you reach the goals which are there for the whole environment!

Often, freedom is understood as a freedom to do things which are not possible by some rules or limits or ethics. But there is a freedom in ethical behaviour. When you can love people with full heart, without any resentiments, that is freedom! When you can be honest and when you do not need much, that is freedom! It is much more freedom not to need much than to have much (which usually implies you have to take care of it and make sure it does not get stolen).

There is freedom in the ability to be happy about the success of other people, to be happy about their beauty, about their joy, about their posessions! God wants to be there with us, where ever we are, and show us the beauty of his creation. It is much better than many beautiful things which humans have made - though also these things can be quite impressive. Of course, since men himself is a fantastic creation, with the creativity inherited from the Lord. There is so much freedom to discover in being happy about what is there already! Fantastic. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts