Freedom, Activism and Demonstrations

[HKHaugan]

Freedom, Activism and Demonstrations

 Just what is freedom anyway? Is it the ability to do anything you want? Is it a feeling, an attitude or merely just a concept? Who or what defines it?

 You go to a concert and hear a great singer who belts out a famous song that says freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. It has a catchy tune and a hand-clapping beat, but its words are deceptive. If you sing along with it and think that you’ll feel real freedom when it’s over, and then act like there’s nothing left to lose, you’re in for a depressing surprise. When the song ends and the beat stops, nothing has changed. You go home and to your everyday routine. You’re still the same person having to deal with the same reality you left. It rendered a ‘do-anything-you-want-what-have-you-got-to-lose?’ attitude. Is that really freedom?

 A long past movie showed a troubled youth who summed up the world of rival gangs in big cities, “Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse.” Then there are people who migrate from one place to another to be ‘freer’ than they were for political, social, religious, emotional and economic reasons only to find different restrictions in their new habitat. Convicts behind prison walls yearn for freedom which to them is being any place but where they are only to find that when they have either escaped or been ‘freed’ they face walls they can’t see.

 What it all reveals is that there is an inner condition, an inner restriction from which they nor anyone else can ever escape unless there is a freedom beyond the worldly levels that keeps knocking at our doors. Outer freedom is not inner freedom. That inner condition is slavery to self. That inner condition yearns for a freedom that seems to always be just out of reach and outer activity never resolves it. Many people who believe they are activists look for causes or are drawn to causes and public demonstrations to prove they are selfless and doing something worthy thus answering that inner desire for freedom. Actually, they are more ‘self’ than cause. They are really coming out of unresolved inner or relational issues. Demonstrating is feeling that since you are free to demonstrate about the ‘rights’ of others, that will justify or compensate for your internal unfulfillment. You may feel better but there’s really no internal resolution. And, you tend to live and feed on demonstrations as a way to gain self-satisfaction, but it never comes even though you talk yourself into believing they work. Outer revolution never leads to inner resolution. Worldly freedom is really slavery to self.

 It’s only spiritual freedom that neutralizes all the other definitions of freedom.  

 It’s not until we are free within, that freedom wherever you are, becomes a reality. The only true inner freedom is spiritual and that is freedom within and without. It’s being free from self-centeredness and the sin which fosters it. Sin is the unsettled imperfection that drives self-centeredness. There is no freedom in sin. When we settle our spiritual unrest, sin’s aloneness, pride and fear, we don’t look for some outward cause or purpose to make us feel good about ourselves. This is just another reason Jesus came and died for us; to bring us freedom in a relationship with Him through the Spirit.

 There is no true freedom until we are spiritually free. Spiritual freedom is the only answer to being truly free. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal.5:1).” And this is definitely not about religion which can be just another slavery to self. It’s about having a living relationship with God through Jesus. Spiritual freedom neutralizes all the other definitions of freedom. Spiritual freedom is making choices and decisions that the Holy Spirit directs through our faith in Jesus. His example and presence in our hearts becomes our motivation to be active.

 When we are spiritually free, we become spiritually active. Spiritual activism comes from an inner spiritual resolution of freedom from sin to externally pursue what would please God as we move about in the world. Scripture is our activist manual. This is what changes the world, that inner freedom that brings a confidence, ‘feeling OK in one’s own skin,’ that doesn’t depend on finding a social or political cause or whether others like us or not. We have a new cause, letting the Holy Spirit use us to serve others where we are, not on picket lines, but wherever our bodies carry us and with whomever we are in contact with. That’s not just a one-time demonstration but an ongoing calling in every nest moment.

 It is the relational world in which we live personally and share what God has given us that changes the world. Missions in third world countries, in local neighborhoods that are depressed, where we are with people we run into, those who have real needs. Hospitals, schools, colleges, neighborhood centers, YMCA’s, AA’s, food ministries, wherever people are in trouble; all these over the centuries have been developed inspired by spiritually freed people. Spiritual activism changes the playing field. Spiritual freedom is true freedom.

 Jesus said, “So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (Jn.8:36).”  Paul got the hang of it and said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal.5:1).”