Love of Freedom is Fostered by Loving God

What is to be free? To be free is to have the power to exercise our free will. To be like God gave us the right to be: to think, to act, to talk, to love, to travel, to vote, to have a family, to obtain an education without hindrance. To be born without the fear of being enslaved by the unjust power of the a tyrannical yoke is the right of each person. To be able to say: I can decide my destiny. I am the captain of my ship, with my own determination, I can give the steering to God for Him to guide me and set my course, but I am free to decide where I want to go.

God created us with free will. From the very beginning, He gave Adam and Eve free will, and they used it to disobey the creator and were expulsed from paradise.  God using his divine will came to redeem us. Jesus Christ, God made man, died for us, for each one of us on the cross. He showed us the road to eternal life, but he gave us free will to follow him or to deny him.

Who has the right to the take away someone's free will? Nobody. For example: If a group of individuals in a remote island away from civilization find themselves marooned, rules of behavior will be needed.  For everyone to enjoy of their human rights certain rules have to be enforced. My rights end when the rights of my neighbor begin.  Rules and laws define boundaries, what can be done and what should not be done. In all communities laws are needed to guide their members, but never to subjugate anyone against their will.

A free person is one who knows and obeys God's law.  Jesus taught us that we ought to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our mind, all our strength and our neighbor as ourselves (Cf. Matthew 12:29-31).

God made man to his image and likeness (Cf. Genesis 1:27). He gave him free will. We can decide our destiny. We can decide what we want to do with our lives. We can decide what we want to do and what we do not want to do. We can abandon God by use of our free will, even when God never abandons us. But any decision we make we have to accept the consequences.

In a group of people in a society, a human being has the human right given by God to exercise his own will, his free will. An individual has the right to express his opinion freely, the right to own private property, the right to chose who he marries, the right to have a family, the right to buy and sell, the right to privacy, the right to get an education, to travel, to elect his government officials, to profess a religious faith, the right to be respected as God respects us.  Having those rights we also have duties. The duty to respect our neighbor, to respect their right of self expression, the right of ownership, the right to privacy, and their right to receive an education. There exist the natural reason to acknowledge that our rights and the rights of our neighbor have to exist side-by-side. That is democracy. I cannot impose my way of thinking to others, because is I do so, I am violating the free will of my neighbor. My rights have to coexist with the rights of others.

Freedom is given to each human being from the moment of his birth. Freedom is our innate right. Our freedom is part of our human constitution. We progress in our spirituality and our humanity if we have freedom to do so. The stability of a group of individuals, of a society, depends over all in obedience of God's law. We ask for God's help especially when conflicts develop.

When an individual is free to be, he can decide what he wants without fear. In a free society, nobody is anyone's owner.  In a free society there are no slaves. The government serves the people, not the people serving the government. The government is freely elected by the individuals of the society. If we obey the law, we do not have anything to fear. The government protects the rights of each individual and is the friend of every citizen, not its dictator. No one has the freedom to violate the laws, not even the president, who can be accussed and convicted, if found guilty of breaking the law. Justice of the law is applied to everyone, rich and poor.

The law of the country is meant to protect the common good and the common good is guided by the divine law. The idea that each human being has the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the right to search for his own happiness is written in the American constitution, but before it was written there, God wrote it in our hearts.

From an ideal, from a belief, a free nation raises. Fear enchains and imprisons. Divisions destroy the strength inherent to a group. Union, courage, faith are the enemies of disunion, cowardliness and fear. When each individual decides: "No more slavery" the drum of freedom begins to sound.

When human creativity is smothered by being placed in chains to ideas determined by others who want to control and subjugate, the human spirit suffers. If a human being is deprived of freedom for a long time, isolated from religion and frustrated with the constant yoke of oppression without reason, that individual may forget what is to be free. It is like when we breath smoke for a while time, after a long time we may forget how fresh air smells, but when clean air enters the nose, very quickly we realize what a good thing that is.

Human creativity can decrease and productivity can become mediocre, if one is enslaved. The law of the least effort takes control.  For the law to ignore the common good does not make sense.  People will do the least to get by, because the product of their labor does not benefit the slave but the master of the slave. A country of master and slave does not last. A country that denies the rights of the individual eventually will fall under its own weigh.

The human spirit can grow under the right conditions, and it can be destroyed under the wrong conditions. But a human being with a purpose for living lives even under inhuman conditions.

As Christians, we are to help the needy. There is no one more needy than that person that does not know what he needs. For example, we can dream about a symphony, but if we have never heard one, it is only a dream. We in America have heard the symphony of freedom, let us play the music, for the slaves of totalitarian regimens to be able to hear it, and for them to be aware that freedom is not a dream but a reality, that only the slaves themselves can attain.

Love of freedom is fostered by loving God. A free human being is the one that can love God above everything else and his neighbor as himself without fear of repression or whippings. Every human being deserves to be free, because God made us free.

The road is opened in front of us step by step. Dreams become reality not by the effort of one, but by the effort of everyone. With the peace of God the dreams of freedom around the world can become reality. A human being was born to be free. God made us free.

Written by Marta - LEAP OF FAITH - www.faihtleap.org/freedom.htm

May 27, 2005