Freedom
I recently received a nice reminder of something that perhaps I had just forgotten. I was squatting on the banks of the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia when Senior Chief Inyambo Yeta of the Lozi Tribe was watching the sun rise over the river. It was breathtaking as ever. He looked at me and said, “I love you Americans. You’re self-sufficient, you’re strong, you’re proud, you’re independent and you can always get things done.”
How about you? Have you, like me, forgotten that about us Americans? Maybe it’s time for us to do re-runs of old John Wayne movies to remind us that we’re not just anybody. We are Americans blessed by God to be free, to be strong and to be self-sufficient.
Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:13:
“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”
As Christians we are set free from the bondage of sin through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. This freedom enables us to think less about our own lives and to focus more on the lives of others. The freedom we have as Americans is something to be grateful for but it pales in comparison to the freedom we have through Jesus Christ.
