First Steps – January 27, 2020

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting Normandy, France.  It had long been a bucket list item for me.  I have always been a World War II buff and marveled at the heroism of the Allied Invasion of Normandy and the entire war for that matter.  However, walking on Utah and Omaha Beaches, seeing the topography, having an educated guide point out the historical steps and events was not just emotional but enlightening.

How humbling it was to see and then envision the efforts made to secure freedom in the face of tyranny.  While I was there, I thought about Romans 6:17-19:

So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!   I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?

Because we have freedom, in fullness of the word, we are to not take it for granted but to use it to love God and others.  We are not free to simply do what feels good but to make a difference in the lives of others.  We do this most effectively when we love others as ourselves.  Jesus sacrificed for us so that we could live for him.