Safety or Freedom

In 2020, the world experienced a threat. We were told that it would be devastating. News outlets advised that the healthy should quarantine themselves, wear masks, keep their distance, and avoid crowds. We were told that all these steps should be taken for our safety. People I spoke with began saying "Be safe" or "Stay safe" as a salutation. It felt like captivity. We couldn't do many of the things we loved to do. Concerts were not a thing. Restaurants either did delivery with a drop-off that did not involve human interaction, or they closed altogether. Many televised events had fake crowds. Everyone was under lockdown. Our focus was on safety at the cost of our freedom.

I have a problem with addictions. After high school, which was over two decades before I heard about COVID-19, I allowed some influences to lead me away from what I knew to be right and live a lifestyle that should have resulted in my own death. When I came out of that and began seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ again, I felt that the risk of my problem with addictions and the devotion to my relationship with Christ meant that I should focus on my safety against the risk of stepping back into that life. I didn't go out with friends. I isolated myself to avoid the potential of relapse. I chose what I felt was the safe route. I couldn't do some of the things I loved to do. Camping was not a thing. Hanging out with friends was limited. Entertainment with TV and video games became my fake crowd. I was under lockdown. My focus was on safety at the cost of my own freedom.

I want to pause for a second here to address what may seem an obvious issue with my reasoning regarding my own story. In the beginning of my effort to get away from the lifestyle that was harming me, I was sick. My state of mind and body needed some recovery time. I needed to resolve a few issues, get physically cleaned up from what I had been doing, and separate myself from those direct influences encouraging me to continue in my harmful choices. When we are sick, we need healing. Sometimes that means we spend time in relative isolation, but not complete isolation. We still need someone to attend to us in those times. We need the health check, the "medicine" for whatever our ailment is, and the care of another that is often the most important component of our full healing. That is still not a complete focus on safety. The caretaker risks themselves to assist the sick or broken.

I lived in my own self-imposed lockdown for about 15 years of my marriage. My week was a cycle of wake/work/entertainment/bed until the weekend when it was just entertainment, usually going to church on Sundays, then starting the cycle over again. I didn't seek out new friendships. I didn't really allow anyone to see the real me. I knew my weaknesses, so I was just going to steer as clear as I could from them and I would stay safe. I was safe, in my own eyes, from the risk of getting into a group of friends that might influence me to get back into the trouble I had escaped. I didn't want that. I still don't, but my approach now is different.

When we were under COVID lockdown, I didn't go to the gym. I had spent the previous few years working on getting in better shape, but when no one was supposed to be around anyone else, I just let it drop. I know some people did a good job keeping up with home exercises and such, but my motivation seemed to just fade as the public fear of this unknown disease grew. I saw businesses permanently close their doors. I saw entire industries shut down for the duration of the lockdown with no way to generate revenue. Nothing seemed healthy about our safety.

When I was in my own lockdown, I did not seek close friendships. I did not look for new mentors to get some guidance in the chapter of life we were facing at that time. I was not keeping up with the effort that I needed to put forward to keep myself as healthy as I could be. My isolation from people outside my own family had a similar effect on my mental and spiritual health that the COVID lockdown had on my physical health. It wasn't good. It wasn't really safe. It certainly was not freedom. In both of those instances, the focus on safety literally came at the cost of my freedom.

I shared a little bit of this mindset and was presented with the question, "How do you define freedom?" I stick with the dictionary definition. I'm going to simply copy and paste from Webster's online dictionary:

the quality or state of being free: such as

a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action

b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another: independence

c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous

d: unrestricted use

e: ease, facility

f: the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken

g: improper familiarity

h: boldness of conception or execution

I think what the question was leading to was should we be free to do what we want even if it is against the Bible or our morality. I believe we should. I'm going to borrow from the Apostle Paul here. In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul makes a statement to the church in Corinth that shook me: "'Everything is permissible for me,' but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me,' but I will not be mastered by anything." We are free to do all things, but we should be wise enough to know what is beneficial and what will not take mastery over us.

Paul doesn't say "everything other than the things that Jesus told us not to do". He doesn't say "everything but the things prohibited by Jewish law". His statement was "everything". I don't want confusion here. I'm not advocating for sinning and feeling like you can get away with it. In fact, the verse leads you to the correct ultimate conclusion. There are two primary statements. One is "I can do whatever I want, but not all of that is helpful," and the other is "I can do whatever I want, but I won't be under bondage." Any real study of the Bible will lead you to the obvious conclusion that sin = bondage.

Threats to freedom are many and varied. We can be slaves to addictions. I was. We can be hindered by wasting our time on entertainment. We can be bound by fear. We can be captured by lust. We can be prisoners to our pursuit of wealth. Our freedom can be threatened by other people, religion, political rulers or even views, and by our own choices. Freedom requires maintenance. It requires work. It requires sacrifice. The men that founded our country, though imperfect like you and I, sought to separate themselves from a tyrannical government and establish a place where we had freedom. They wanted to worship the way they saw fit. They wanted to work the way they thought right. They wanted to different type of government that allowed its people to live free. That freedom did not come cheap. Men died fighting for it with a conviction that is not often seen in our modern world. They gave their lives so that we would have the freedoms we have today. Their fight for our freedom came at the cost of their safety.

Years ago, this idea of living safe or living free hit me as I was reading Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. The book was tough for me to work my way through, but there were so many excellent concepts in it that I've now gone through the book so many times that my paper copy looks a bit the worse for wear. The book exposes the lie that the modern Christian man is supposed to be this safe, clean, passive thing that we don't see anywhere in the Bible. The Christian man is not supposed to live in sanitized rooms with pads on the walls, a mask on his face, or in isolation. We are supposed to be free and we are to fight for the freedom of others. We must recognize what Paul told us regarding the things that are not helpful to us or the things that could master us, but we should be "out there." We should be living the life of liberty that Christ fought for. He fought for your freedom and mine at the cost of His safety. He gave His life so that you and I might live.

If I take my freedom, both my freedom in this country and my freedom in Christ, seriously, then it should affect my life. If I don't take the freedom I have in the United States for granted, then I'll vote. I'll write congressmen and women (at the risk of a ridiculous amount of spam), and I'll be involved in my community. If I don't take my freedom in Christ for granted, then I'll reach out to Him. I'll be involved in my church. I'll find ministries I can be involved in or contribute to. The appreciation of that freedom will help to shape the things I want to do and the ways in which I can do them. I should support my country in the ways I am able, and I should encourage others to do what they need to so they can enjoy the freedoms afforded by the sacrifices of so many. I should support my Creator and Redeemer in the ways I am able as well. I should tell others about His freedom and encourage others to give their lives to Him so they can experience the freedom afforded by the sacrifice of Jesus Himself.

When COVID rolled around and we were all encouraged to be safe, to keep our distance, and to do and not do all the things we were told to do, I saw it for what it really was. It was the theft of our freedom. I had put myself under that same quarantine many years before, and I knew that the price of my illusion of safety would come at the cost of my freedom. In my opinion, "Live Free or Die" is about the same as "Live Free or Live Safe." The idea of safety in this world is a fragile illusion.

This world is not a safe place. Living anywhere on this planet is not truly safe. Doing work, playing, being in relationships, and trusting anyone about anything is not safe. There is risk in being free. There's the risk of harm, failure, betrayal, doing the wrong thing, and even the risk of death.

Should that stop us?

I hope it won't stop you.

I won't let it stop me.

Don't be safe. Be free.