Freedom

"To live will be a great adventure..." Peter Banning in Hook.

The greatest life of all is the life God offers through Jesus Christ. So it's no surprise to understand that this life is the greatest adventure.

He has given me the means to go, and the will to do it--that is, a truly free will. Often, either from passion or from desire, we wish to fling this one gift away--what good is a will when it so often betrays us? But there is no other way across the sea that separates man from God. I am told, quite rightly, that no effort can apprehend God. There is only his will, which is to give us grace freely, and our will, which he has commanded shall be free. The trial of the waters is nothing to fear nomatter how they rage. Free will is seaworthy, it can take us home.

We go, then, by raising sail into the wind of the Spirit, not by lowering. We go by taking the helm in hand--this, which he has called "the Bread that comes down from heaven" is given to us to be taken hold of, that we might live. Acts of free will can be good, worthy and liberating, as well as false. We learn by doing.

We are meant to captain our own ships. It is God's will that we have free wills, and Jesus, our Teacher, has given us example. As he has lived, so we can live.

Someone once said, "It seems we just been dropped down in this world between good and evil, and don't none of us know why." But I know why. We are here to be truly free. We have often been, and often called ourselves, slaves to sin. But this isn't the case. Our Liberation came, and he is here now, with us. And he will be with us forever. No longer slaves, we are made free, and it is this freedom that tells us who we are, and where we belong. None of the evil matters to those who are free. To use our will--to choose life--is the greatest honor we can offer. He has given us grace to be our guarantee, and his Spirit to companion us. We accept our freedom, and we are given everything...