Freedom???

Freedom.
–noun
1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. the power to determine action without restraint.

The power to determine action. Just think, we have the power to determine action. What does that even mean?
John 8:36 says,

if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed

Free indeed! But what is the freedom that comes from Christ? Is it life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Is it a lack of discipline? Is it never paying a cent for anything? What kind of freedom does Christ bring?
Once again, Oswald has me thinking. He writes...

If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, “I can’t surrender,” or “I can’t be free.” But the spiritual part of our being never says “I can’t”; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin— we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.

Maybe the "I can'ts" aren't from God. I think God may put some I won'ts in our minds. I won't do this, or I won't do that. But faith, faith is believing in the impossible.
Once again, I am not going to pretend to sort this all out. I'll let you wrestle with the idea a freedom as man has done for the last few thousand years. I'll leave you with some photos of what freedom looks like to me.

Free to learn.

Free to laugh.

Free to dance.

Free to fall in love.