Handling FREEdom

Do you see how important it is for you to be more than a friend to others, but a faithful friend (see my last article)? It is so important for all of us to have faithful friends! News stories from the past few days should be additional glaring reminders and challenge each of us to reach out and befriend and serve others around us. We just learned that late Saturday, a Virginia Tech sophomore student, David Gayle, (identity confirmed Monday), was killed after falling from the third floor balcony of an off campus apartment complex. Alcohol and the party mentality I have spoken about (e.g. my 03-05-09 “Spring Break Tragedy” blog) was again a factor in this tragic death. News Tuesday rings close to home and to the community at and around the University of Texas as another school sophomore there, Colton Tooley, strolled along a campus street with an AK-47 assault rifle, reportedly firing three shots toward a church and another three in the air before going into the school library, firing a few more shots and taking his own life (certainly many there recalled the history of Charles Whitman and the horrific Clock Tower shooting some 44 years ago). From these news stories and the LORD’s recent leading and teaching in my life, I want to speak today about “handling freedom.”

I have spoken much about the importance of freedom and the true foundations of it. You may wish to consider the more recent blog article, “Eclipsing FREEdom” (07-04-10) or even the poem “To Be FREE” (see the poem tab above) that I wrote when facing the legal trial of my life in 2008. My freedoms have been wrongly restricted or taken away from me because of my “unwavering beliefs” and my speaking out. This should serve as an illustration and glaring warning to each of us. The freedoms we all enjoy will become more and more restricted (if for no other reason than the transgressions of our land—see Proverbs 28:2), if we do not see the greater changes I am praying for and frequently speaking and writing about. We do enjoy so many freedoms in America that we often take for granted. If we do not do a better job of handling them, we will continue to lose them and have our liberties restricted.

So, what do I mean by “handling freedom”? How can you handle something that is not physical or understood as a concept? Please do not be deceived or distracted here. The answers are there for those willing to think and look for them. 😉 Handling anything, physical or non-physical, is a matter of using the object(s) or the information given in the way that enables accomplishing some goal. Essentially, it is a matter of control (you may also want to reference that early [05-01-08] blog article “It is ALL about CONTROL!”). How you handle something reveals your ability to control it. Handling something too tightly may keep it from working toward your goal. Handling something too loosely will also hinder using it for your goal. There must be a proper handling to use the object or information the way that is best. Do you understand what I saying here? Freedom is something that is handled and it must be handled wisely or it will not work for the best and may even lead to various losses of freedom.

Further understanding will go beyond this one-page article. In fact, my 416 page 😉 book coming from my own personal tragedy and loss of freedoms following the 04-16-07 Virginia Tech Tragedy, deals with all of this further as do all of the things I am writing. You cannot understand freedom apart from some boundary to define what it is and if you do not learn to handle freedom wisely as sophomores or freshmen, juniors, seniors or other students of life, you will experience less true enjoyment as well as the loss of freedoms you thought you had.

Being spiritually free on the inside is the first and most important step to handling FREEdom!