I hope everyone had a fun and safe Fourth of July! July 4th is a great time to not only celebrate the independence of this county but to look at ourselves and ask the question, “Are we free?”
Freedom means more than being politically free. It means more than just having money and time to go and do whatever we want. Being free means free to be all that we were created to be; to be happy in spite of whatever is going on around us. If we are only happy when things in life go our way, then we are prisoners to our own thoughts and outside circumstances. We allow our minds or circumstances to place us in the chains of self bondage.
Viktor Frankl is an example of someone who found not only freedom, but peace in the midst of the most horrible circumstances. He was a prisoner in a concentration camp during Hitler’s reign of terror. In his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Frankl concludes from his experience that a prisoner’s psychological reactions are not solely the result of the conditions of his life, but also from the freedom of choice he always has even in severe suffering. The inner hope a prisoner has within his spiritual self relies on having a hope in the future, and that once a prisoner loses that hope, he is doomed.
As true as that was for prisoners, so to for us. We have the freedom of choice as to how we deal with life’s big and little challenges. Today, make a decision to choose freedom.
Quote of the Week
“Every man believes himself to be in bondage to the flesh and to the things of the flesh. All suffering is the result of this belief.”
Emily Cady, “Lessons in Truth”
