One of my favorite moments as a kid was when the playground swing reached the apex of its arch, and there was a sensation of being weightless, free from the earth’s pull. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could continually live at the “top of the arch,” free from the gravity of life’s heaviness?
Stephanie is probably the first non-family person to start following my blog. She is a missionary who works in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky. Life seems to have considerably more “gravity” in that region. She made a comment on a blog post in part saying, “That was freeing…” Those were important words to me to hear for two reasons. First, they were affirming. Second, they reminded me of a basic premise of my theology, God is not hard to find or enjoy.
However, I have discovered God, His purposes, and His ways can only be partially comprehended, at least for me. There is always an edge to the human knowledge of Him where what we do know must be extended into the darkness of what we do not know, and that is called “faith.” This is a deep pool to ponder and for profitable exploration.
This pool can be surveyed by standing on or circumventing the edge, or it can be enjoyed by emersion in its waters. At the beginning of my “new life,” I tentatively jump in, got wet, and then quickly to the ankle-deep part where I could easily move in and out of obligations to adjust my life to God’s presence. In later mid-life, I was wary of the constant “gravity” of life. Life had enjoyable moments but not real joy. I felt more bondage than freedom. Slowly I learned that I had to get in over my head before I could discover all the wonder the water of this pool has to offer.
Jesus said, “You will find the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When my walk with God becomes a burden, then something is wrong in my thinking about God and about me. Anything less than the truth will create bondage to some degree. The only way to realize freedom is to dwell in the truth, actually the Truth.
Freedom is not “independence” to do and to take what I want but liberation to become who I was created to be. Usually, when I am feeling weighed down, it is because I desire to be freed from some pain or want. Salvation sets us free to gain something our Creator wants; to reveal Himself intimately to us individually, passionately, and eternally.
To realize you are not free is the starting place for gaining freedom. Adam and Eve were set free from the confines of the Garden of Eden only to be enslaved to the bondage of living outside Eden. Inside they were living with God. Outside they were living before God. That is a huge difference.
The closer we live with God, the less we labor under the gravity of life this side of Heaven. The challenge of life is not in desiring freedom from the weight of life but desiring to live close to our Creator, Jesus Christ, the author of life. Freedom is not the achievement of a way of life, but the emancipation of the promised given to us.
Photo – Taken from inside a deserted building in Lynch, Kentucky.
Baldwin Heirlooms 