Wednesday; December 4

          I don’t always forward things I read on social media, but I saw something that I really liked last week.  It was a quote attributed to the 20th Century minister, Peter Marshall, who observed, “May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.”.  As I looked at this statement it appealed to me from several angles.  First, when we think of freedom merely as a license to do what we choose to do, we set ourselves on a course of conflict with the people around us.  If we were all to embrace this libertine lifestyle it won’t take long before we started bumping into each other’s freedoms.  When our motto is summarized in the statement, “because I want to”, we are bound to end up battered and bruised.  The second part of his statement offers us a new way to look at freedom – a chance to do good by others.  When we are freed from the confines of a flawed system (either of tyranny or immorality) we have the ability to make a positive difference in the lives of others.  When we are given the license to do good and we are willing to reach out to others life get better for all of us.
          A couple thousand years before Peter Marshall, the Apostle Paul challenged, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13).  We can be thankful that we life in a time and place that values freedom.  Let’s make it all it can be!
          Think About It!

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