Freedom comes at such a high price at times. The truth found in “Freedom is never free” runs through my mind periodically. Freedom comes at a high cost that too many people have had to pay. What exactly does it mean to be free? Do we actually utilize the fact that we live in a world full of freedoms that some can only dream of? Life can have so many constraints and pressures to be what the world says we need to be. Whatever happened though to being enough and breaking the bonds that we have to this world that says we aren’t quite enough. How does one live in complete freedom of who it that God has called us to be? Where do we find the freedom to live the life we are called to live?
My parents were always the ones to tell me that whatever I wanted to do… I was always capable of whatever I needed to accomplish. There was no one in the world that could stop me from doing what I set out to do. Their unconditional love and example of what love really means when the going was tougher than tough was a huge part of what makes who I am today. To choose to love someone when it is the absolute last thing that I want to do takes more strength and determination then I can ever seem to muster on my own at times. That is where one must begin the journey of finding strength, love and fortitude that exists way beyond what the naked eye can see. When we cannot find the strength relying only on ourself to carry on, one must search for strength beyond human existence. As a friend of mine said the other day the hard times are what make us stronger and better versions of who we once were. It is at our weakest moments that we find the greatest strength. At times it seems like there is only the slightest glimmer of light in a world that can seem so dark and desolate. However, it is in the darkest places that smallest light shines the brightest. This is where true freedom begins to be found.
There have been more times than I can count in my life that things have been less than ideal and life is the exact opposite of what I wish it would be at that moment. My biggest fear and darkest place that I struggle with is being abandoned and left all alone. Life and people have taken their toll on an already fragile part of me. Not that I think that anyone person would set out to just be non existent in someone’s life. It is quite the opposite. Life in general just happens. People and their corresponding ideals change. Therefore wants and desires change. People then have a choice to stay and stick it out through the hard times and see what they can be molded into. Or they can decide that time has come to move onto new experiences and see where a new road in life will lead. One person’s season may be far shorter than once perceived. I have shared that I am adopted and the ever nagging fear of someone not wanting me or just leaving me nags at me more times than I care to admit. I would love to say that I am without fear and that I don’t need people in my life and that I am more than able to make the best of any situation. I can pull through, chin held high, and life becomes the exquisite bit that it was always meant to be. Alas, time and time again people continue to be imperfect and not everyone is meant to stay a part of your life forever. This has been a tough lesson learned a few times over and one that I wish I wasn’t so good at learning. Sometimes the chapter of where you are has to end and a whole new chapter begins. Knowing where to look and how to see just where it is that the journey of life leads us is worth the trials and tribulations that can mold and refine who we were meant to become all along.
Knowing that right where we find ourselves is where we were meant to be all along reminds that I am not always in control of absolutely every aspect of my life. I cannot control what happens and that there will be moments (to0 many to count sometimes) where there is quite simply nothing that I can do to change whatever has happened. That is where the another moment of freedom is found. I am not all knowing and all seeing. I am not in control. I will make mistakes and I will be human. That is an inevitable part of life. Just simply knowing though that I don’t have to be perfect or have everything perfectly in control makes things so much easier to handle. The pressure that we all put on ourselves to be the ideal whatever we have set our sights on is taken away. We don’t have to be perfect or know exactly what will happen next. All that one needs to know is that God has it. That in whatever point of life that find ourselves there was a plan for that too. We don’t walk it alone and that we are each loved beyond measure. We are set free to live a life full of love, grace, and understanding. We are each called to live in thee freedom of choosing to love and to live life full of being a child of the light, that never walks alone, despite people leaving. The love and presence of God above will be what brings each of us through it in the end.
Image credit: © PsychoShadow – www.bigstockphoto.com