SATURDAY, MARCH 19

“Deny yourself, pick up your cross and come with me” (Luke 9:23)

“You have to lose your life to save it.” (Luke 17:33)

Fear of Freedom

An education text that I've been reading says that even the oppressed can become so dependent on the system which oppresses them that they fear freedom. Seem ironic? How about this:

You've worked for Corporation X for a long time. You are offered a better situation in Corporation Y, but are not sure you can function outside of X. Get the picture? Then, to what are we really committed?

You want to be a disciple. It will require total commitment. You are warned that it's hard, dangerous and requires putting your life on the line. You look for counsel. Here's a bit of advice that Bill Spurr passed along in the Lenten Devotionals of 2001:

I ran in breathless freedom – yet I ran

In danger and disquiet, knowing fears,

Knowing no peace in the unbounded span

Of tither-wither in my feckless years.

But now the Hound of Heaven holds me fast.

So long as I fled, so fearful was my heart

Of capture in the fields that, in the past,

I quartered wildly – separate, apart –

Yet wishful for the haven of a cage,

A refuge from the running, now I lick

The Hand that loosed the hound; no longer rage

Possesses me, nor fear, nor any flick

Of panic. Now I yield – am tamed and still,

And lay my muzzle to my Captor's knee –

For now I know, obedient to His will,

A freedom never known when I was free.

(J. M. Campbell)

Prayer: Father God help us to understand that only as servants bound to you can we be truly free. Amen.

Ross Stuntz