Freedom

I didn't like being a Christian all that much in high school. I loved my friends, who were all Christians, and I loved youth group and having people think I was a good kid and all, but I don't think I really liked the part where I was actually supposed to be a Christian. The main reason this was the case was that there were a lot of things I wasn't supposed to do that seemed like they'd be lots of fun. I entertained thoughts of what it would be like to be able to cuss, smoke, maybe have sex, and just do all the fun stuff it seemed like everyone else was allowed to do.

I remember one time when our youth pastor talked about how being a Christian was freeing. He read a passage from the Bible that said Jesus had come to set us free. That sounded nice, but it didn't match my experience. The way I saw it, being a Christian just meant there was lots of stuff you couldn't do that was really fun so that someday you could go to heaven. For me Christianity was delayed gratification. It was kind of like roasting your marshmallow slow. It was annoying that you had to wait to eat it, but if you took your time it would be better in the end. You stay away from all the fun stuff now, but you get to go to heaven for eternity, and eternity is lots longer than 70 or 80 years.

But Paul does say in Galatians that Christ came, lived, and died to set us free, and I don't believe Paul is a liar. Well, since high school God has taught me a lot about what it means to follow Jesus, to live for him. My problem in high school was that I was living completely for myself while trying to make sure I could still go to heaven and have my parents and church people think I was amazingly holy. I didn't really care what Jesus wanted. And when you try to live for yourself and still be a Christian it is not freeing. Being a Christian is being in bondage. The high school me wasn't so far off on that one.

The point is that the Bible says when we decide to follow Jesus we die and then it is Jesus who lives in us. You die and there's no you to live for anymore; only Jesus. And when you start caring more about what Jesus wants than what you want, being a Christian becomes freedom. Not because you get to follow all the rules, but because you want to know Jesus and be like Jesus and God provides you with his Spirit to help you do it. When you don't want to sin, and God helps you to sin less and less, you feel free. Free to love other people, even when they don't love you. Free to give your money to things that will make this world safer, happier, and more beautiful instead of to the Gap. Free to look at women as people rather than objects. When you die to your selfish desires you want what Jesus wants, and you begin to become like him with his help. So being a Christian is freedom. Or being a Christian is bondage. It all depends on who you're living for.