This is Freedom

When you hear the word Freedom… what does it make you think of?

Many Americans might imagine enjoying a baseball game, or barbecuing outside with family and friends, or perhaps a Sunday morning service at their local church. But is that really... all freedom is?

Freedom is such a big word, yet we toss it around as though it were a common experience for the rest of the world. Here we are living in a country in which most of us were raised never understanding the full value of all the freedoms that were made available to us. Never truly experiencing the full spectrum of American Exceptionalism. Most of us don’t even know what freedom really means.

Google’s dictionary simply states freedom as the right to do whatever you want to do, without hindrance or restraint. But that seems so selfish, doesn’t it? I mean, is that really why our founding fathers fought, bled, and died… lost their families, their fortunes, and sacrificed their own lives?

Is that why all those brave men fought in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and all the wars that have been fought through the years? Is that why Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis, and the rest of the Texas militia fought and died at the Alamo… because they were defending their right to do whatever they wanted to do?  That definition just seems so shallow... If that’s all freedom means.

I like how Noah Webster defines freedom. He lived as a young man during the time of the American Revolution. He wrote this just a handful of years after America had fought and won her Freedom:

“Freedom is the state of exemption from the power or control of another. It is liberty.  It is exemption from slavery, servitude, or confinement. Freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious.”

Let that sink in for a moment. Because when you think about the true essence of freedom. Freedom is our ability to choose that which we believe to be right and true. To voluntarily serve the causes we believe in. To willingly serve others by the force of our own love, not by the force of any law. Not by enslavement to a system by which we have no ability to determine our own desired level of success.

Nor is freedom an entitlement to an affluent lifestyle, nor a guarantee to any measure of success… only the opportunity to pursue any degree of achievement and follow any dream ignited by the flame of the human spirit… without obstruction or intrusion from any person, institution, or government.

Freedom at its very core is the willing submission of ourselves to serve those we’ve been entrusted to lead. Lifting others up. Helping them rise to their potential to fulfill everything they were created for. It is the acceptance of responsibility, not only for ourselves and our family, but for all the families we’ve been entrusted with. Freedom is our duty to put others before ourselves today… in pursuit of a more prosperous tomorrow. It is putting the next generation before our own.

Freedom is having heroes in our lives. Those who have poured into us from the abundance of love that flows from the overwhelming compassion in their hearts. Heroes who’ve earned our trust and respect, not only because of how they’ve served us, but because of who they are... to us. Because of what they stand for... and fight for. They fight for us. They fight for our families. They fight for our freedom.

And freedom is... believing in and living out our dreams... Showing others the way to fulfill their dreams. Impacting generations to come, because… of who we become.

This. is. Freedom...

This. is. America…