|
In his book, Renewing Your Faith Day by Day, Robert W. Youngs
quotes Sir Rabindrath Tagore, Nobel Prize-winning poet: “I have on my
table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of it and it
responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a violin string is
supposed to do—to produce music. So I take it, fix it in my violin and
tighten it until it is taut. Only then is it free to be a violin
string.” Youngs adds, “By the same token we are free when our lives are
uncommitted, but not to be what we were intended to be. Real freedom is
not freedom from but freedom for.”
John McKelvey wrote, “We are born to be free but have allowed ourselves
to be enslaved by a thousand masters.” Why is it that the freedom we
treasure so much is wasted on useless masters? Why do we commit our time
and talents to so many useless ends?
After comparing the spirit of bondage and the spirit of freedom as
demonstrated in the lives of Hagar and Sarah, Paul urged, “Stand fast
therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
Jesus said to Jewish believers, “If ye continue in my word, then
are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you” (John 8:31-32). When they protested that as Abraham’s
seed, they were never in bondage, He replied, “Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the
servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth
ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”
(John 8:34-36).
The
freedom we enjoy as Americans is a tremendous, precious privilege. But
it is nothing compared to the freedom we receive in Christ. We must
treasure, preserve, and cherish both—and never take either for granted.
The freedom we have in Christ must be the freedom of the committed,
the “taut violin string.” It is then that we can make the most beautiful
music and be what He would have us to be.
Free Indeed
By Bob Prichard
www.oxfordchurchofchrist.com |
