Freedom

July 5, 2010

FREEDOM


So we stood on a large deck at Brad's last night and watched fireworks explode into the night. Flashes and booms...and colors playing on the low hanging clouds. At a huge development complex to the east, and at the Air Force Academy to the west...and over the city....was that Broadmoor? And sprinkled in the neighborhood. It was a night to celebrate freedom. We left the cars unlocked on the street. And we watched and thrilled at the sights and sounds.

Freedom.

And we drove home on safe, wide, busy streets...kept orderly by timed lights at which we all stopped or started. And we did not fear that at the next light something would shatter the calm...or that a car by the side of the road would suddenly explode.

Freedom.

We drove to a home with windows open to the fresh night air. Yes, the front door was locked...but only because it just is smart to do so. No street lights in our neighborhood...financial consideration, and after all it is safe.

And we flipped on the TV - with dozens of channels to select...some of them liberal, some of them conservative all of them able to express freely their opinions to whomever.

Freedom.

I could go on and on to speak of law enforcement, the political judicial system, and freedom of the press, the economic stability (even in these times) and the orderly and imaginitive way life is lived in America.

And we are living in such a time....I am reading a book (THE WORST HARD TIME - Egan) that is telling the story of the dust bowl days....when people worked half a day and got paid with a meal. When terror struck from the sky with 10,000 foot high dust pillars and nothing escaped its penetrating reach...and day turned into night...and people hunkered down in two room houses scraped out of the dry earth...and burned cow pies for fuel.

We are all blessed to be alive right now. We are living at the apex of a remarkable democracy...and a pretty peaceful world.

Let us remember that only Jesus brings perfect peace...and that it was for freedom that Christ has set us free.

May God help us to find a grateful balance and live our lives to His glory.

david