It’s funny, isn’t it, that our society gets busier by the day, but at the same time new technologies are being created to make our life easier.
Smartphones that are getting smarter by the day, able to talk to you and respond to voice commands without you having to even press a button.
Smart TV units that connect to the internet, so you don’t have to get an antenna installed but can have all your favorite shows on demand.
Driverless cars that are being tested right now so you don’t have to even steer the wheel.
It seems that we want to find ways to make life easier.
For some of us, the ideal life is sitting back on the beach sipping a cocktail with our feet up basking in the sun all day.
Some would say life would be perfect if we can sleep all day.
Do we really know what we are looking for?
Are We Free? Look At Our Lives
The rat race is so busy.
We go from one thing to the next pushing ourselves and prepare for Fridays, as it’s the start of the weekend! Then Mondays are a drag…
…because we have 4 more days ahead of us until the weekend.
And then we count down to our holidays. It seems clear that what we do during the week does not fulfill us.
We want a more easy life, and a more autonomous life, but we don’t realize the truth.
The easy way is the path, not to freedom, but, in fact, to slavery.
Think about what the world calls freedom. “You should do what you want to do and be what you want to be”, so if I want to drink as much alcohol as I want, I will. If I want to smoke as much as I want, then I will. If I want to eat all the fast food I want, I will. If I want to play as many video games as I want, I will.
I want to enjoy my life now. I want to get satisfaction with these things now. What happens, do you think, when we follow our urges and put no restrictions on ourselves?
Are we free?
Are We Free? Look at Our Society
Close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year.
Over 300 million people suffer from some form of anxiety and depression now.
Around one out of every two marriages are ending in divorce, and that is sometimes within the first few months!
Australia’s average personal debt level is nearly the highest in the world.
We have more people complaining about life in first world countries than we do in third world countries!
Are we free? Or are we addicted to our pleasures, becoming a slave to them?
Yes, we can do what we want, but that does not mean what we want is always a good thing. Sometimes, what we want is going to harm us. I love chocolate but if I have too much then my body will show it.
This is why self-control is necessary. We must practice the virtue of temperance to keep ourselves in line, and free.
True freedom is not having what you want but having the freedom to do what is right.
We are not free to do wrong.
As I close this week’s blog for our narrow gate series, I urge you to identify in your life 3 things you feel you can’t live without.
Then ask yourself, are these things truly healthy for your body, or soul?
Ask God to help us break free from the trappings of our pleasures and be self-aware of our bad habits.
By now, I am almost a third of the way through the EXODUS 90 spiritual journey. I am learning how much I relied on certain things and took so much for granted.
In this program, I along with 200,000 other men are journeying from Egypt to the promised land, reading the book of Exodus, and cutting certain things out of our lives.
We are committing to cold showers; no TV, unless its a spiritually uplifting program aimed at deepening our faith; no social media; no Youtube; no snacking; no sweets; no alcohol and at least 20 minutes of contemplative prayer a day.
This does not make us miserable, but in fact set us free from slavery.
I urge you to think about this as we prepare for Lent.
Come to some clear, practical conclusions about how you can reclaim control, with God’s grace, over these vices.
Just like Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, we are breaking free of the things that enslave us, so we can pass through the narrow gate and enter into the Promised Land.
Recent Comments