Freedom Isn't Free

Let the fireworks begin! July 4th is here and our nation will be in full barbeque mode this weekend, with cookouts, corn hole games, baseball, hotdogs, and apple pies everywhere you look. At the core of this weekend's celebration is our country's independence from Great Britain some 245 years ago. Our nation was much like an indentured servant to the King of England, bound by government more than any other familial circumstances. Gaining our “freedom" allowed the United States of America to be born signaling that the chains of taxation without representation were broke and that the bells of freedom will ring forever more! Our country has certainly been blessed over the last two centuries, I believe that we need to be reminded often that the cost of that freedom is not free. Actually, I would like to suggest that freedom isn't a personal thing to be enjoyed, but instead it is more of a gift we have been given and the responsibility that freedom carries is to give our freedom away for the benefit of others that need freedom more than we do ourselves.

So, am I suggesting that I am free, but that freedom requires me to be indentured? Exactly. Think about it for a minute, the men and women that fought and gained our independence from King George gave up their personal freedom as a sacrifice for the bigger picture of freedom for a nation to be born so that in turn their children's children would be free to serve others in the same exact way their forefathers sacrificed for them. It's perpetual, we covet freedom, but to be free is to be completely bound to assuring that same freedom is available to ALL people, everywhere. 

If you stop and really think about it isn't that what God did for us? Didn't Jesus leave Heaven to break the chains of sin that enslaved men and women, old and young, Jew or Gentile? God gave His son as a sacrifice to assure that we could be free. When we accept God through Christ's sacrifice we accept that our freedom wasn't free and we have a commitment to assure others come first and we commit to securing that same opportunity to be free for our friends, family, and those we haven't ever even met! 

The apostle Paul exhorts us to place the needs of others first in the book of Philippians, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” When we gain salvation from the chains of our sins through Christ, then it becomes our duty and responsibility to be that same type of servant to the mission of Christ. We fight for those that are helpless, we care for those that are sick or in need, and we give of ourselves and our means to those that need us physically, emotionally, or in whatever figurative context we can imagine. Freedom isn't free, whether it is freedom from the physical chains of slavery, or if it is the freedom from pain, addiction, or suffering, we who have been given the gift of freedom are indentured to the plight of those that are in need. 

As we set up the picnic tables and the corn hole bags are getting ready to be tossed today, keep in mind we have this freedom because a price was paid by somebody else. We owe the next generation that same commitment to "pay it forward" to them. Jesus paid that same price with His death on the cross so that we could be free. We owe Him that same exact commitment to pay that forward as well. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Coach Carter