Beer, Faith, & Freedom

Something that's bothered me for a while is the concept of freedom.  Living in the world that we do as Americans, we definitely take freedom for granted!  We also think that freedom is defined as "the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want, with whomever I want."  Basically, it's all about what I want to do - and if you try to tell me I can't do something, then you are limiting me and taking away my freedom.

So...story time.  Let's say that you are a forth year in college (UVA grad here, so not a "senior").  You and a group of friends decide to attend a party where there will be drinking, and you decide to head over to the keg.  You are old enough to legally drink, so there's no problem there, right?  As it gets later into the night, you *freely* decide to keep getting more drinks - some beer from the keg, some mixed drinks from the make-shift bar, and even a couple of whiskey shots from your friend's flask.

Pause.  Okay, going into the night, yes, you made choices freely:  you weren't pressured into going, and you freely chose to drink, even to excess.  That's your right!  You are allowed to do it, and you decided to do it!  You're free to do what you want, and you did it!  Nothing wrong with that...right?

You think about going home, and after another shot, you walk home with your friends, barely making it into your apartment before passing out on the couch.  The next morning, you wake up in a daze, feeling like you're going to be seeing whatever it is you ate and drank last night again.  After fighting it for a bit, you have to admit it - you are super hung over, and the plans you had for your day are screwed.  You're too nauseous to eat lunch with the guy who finally asked you out, you're too dizzy to write your term paper that's due the next day, you don't remember what you said last night to get such a nasty text from your best friend...basically, all you can do is give in to the hang over, make some mac n' cheese, and watch Friends on Netflix for the third time as you nap on and off all day.

Is this what we want?  Do we really want a freedom that lets us do whatever we want in the moment but doesn't take into account the future?  When God gave Adam & Eve free will, He didn't just say "hey kids, go have fun and do whatever you want!"  Nope, there were some guidelines:  make sure to name all the animals, don't eat the fruit from 1 tree, and don't be stupid.  (Okay, I added that last one.)  Why are there guidelines?  Because each of the decisions we freely make has a ripple effect, with some decisions leading to good effects and some to bad.  Adam & Eve could still make the decision to eat from the tree (which they did...ugh), but God's guidelines were there to make them think about that decision and warn them that the outcome might not be good, no matter how delicious the pomegranate was!  God wasn't trying to limit their freedom to choose - He was trying to help them stay free from their worldly desires and continue to live in His love!

In the story, the college kid chose freely to go to the party, but by making that decision, they were NOT free the next day to do whatever they want.  Simply put, they freely chose to give up their freedom!  That second day, they were not able to do whatever they wanted...and if our culture is going to require that we must be able to always do whatever we think we want whenever we want it in order to be free, it's not going to work out for very long.  The college kid might not have realized it, but the deeper they got into the party, the more they lost their next day's freedom.

Just in case you were getting nervous, I'm not saying that all drinking is bad - I am Catholic after all, and I love getting together for a round of beers with my friends!  All I'm saying is that we should challenge this idea of a short-term freedom being such a great thing.  How amazing would our lives be if we all made decisions based on a vision of one eternal home rather than one fun night?  I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a slave to my desires (Galatians 5:13 - check it out).  I want to live a life of purpose, using my freedom to choose God in all circumstances, not because I've made myself incapable of doing something else but simply because I want to.  I want the Holy Spirit - the Breath of God, the reason why we are alive and are free to make decisions in the first place - to fill my life all of my days so that, when I meet God face to face and get to choose between living with Him & finding my purpose OR doing my own thing & wandering around without Him forever, I use my freedom to choose Heaven.  Instead of being free (and potentially stupid) tonight, let's try to be free forever.

Freedom Reigns by Jesus Culture