Freedom - Give To Gain

True freedom is found in living our life to please Christ and sacrificing our own desires

As we celebrate our country's 245 years of independence this July, I've thought much about freedom and what true freedom looks like both as an American citizen and as a Christian.

Our nation was founded on the bravery of men who asked nothing but who sacrificed everything. That's true humility! All lost much to gain much - to gain independence; to be free.

In the last 245 years men and women have laid their lives on the line countless times over and have sacrificed so much to gain so much - to remain free!

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” — John 8:31-32

More than 2000 years ago, our Lord and Savior brought truth to those oppressed. He inspired and encouraged others to follow Him, to sacrifice in order to gain. He lived His life in humility and sacrificed Himself for our own sin oppression into spiritual freedom. In the last 2000 years, Christians have gave much to gain much - to gain freedom found only in Christ.

As an American citizen, I never gave a lot of thought growing up to my freedom to live my life without oppression, until a point in my 20's when as a young mother and military wife, living overseas seeing my husband off to war ravaged Albania during the Kosovo crisis. It was the stark and eye opening realization that what I had only ever heard of on the news had infiltrated my family's life. We had a loved one serving in another country fighting for an oppressed nation's right to be free. That point in my life took on a whole new meaning of why we fight for our nation to be and remain free. It's that freedom we continue to hold tight to and continue to sacrifice much for so that we can live our lives freely.

As a Christian, it is when I realized the only freedom I truly need is the freedom found in living life following Christ and daily sacrificing my wants for what God wants of and for me. It was then I let go of what I wanted life to look like to gain life in Christ. Like many before me, I gave to gain.

Sometimes we blur the lines of what true, authentic, and genuine freedom look like and sometimes we ignore it altogether. But if we hold tight to the truths of our nation and if we hold tight to the truth of God, not only we will understand what freedom as an American citizen means, we will also understand what freedom as a Christian means. We will, as our forefathers before us and our brothers and sisters in Christ have and continue to do -- give much to gain much.