Freedom, Freedom, Freedom!!

Okay, with a blog called Finding Real Freedom how can I not address the cries for such freedom that are so evident today. In Egypt, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, Yemen and even Wisconsin, people are crying out for the right to have a say in their own destinies. While I'll admit the situation in Wisconsin is not life or death, the others are. Everyone, regardless of their heritage or station in life wants to be able to choose. The oppressed in the Middle East are choosing to put their lives on the line for real freedom. I could not imagine living under those conditions and I don't know why God chose to plant me here in the freest nation on earth. When I hit my teen years this country was in the throes of a revolution: Kent State, Haight-Ashbury, Woodstock, the Chicago Democratic Convention Riots and of course the Civil Rights Movement. While I was experiencing my own personal growing pains the United States of America was too! I guess you could say that "our corporate hormones" were expressing themselves! But seriously...There is an incredible need for folks to have the freedom to make choices. We have those freedoms guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution. Norman Rockwell chose to express himself through the arts. His work titled The Four Freedoms are American classics. While I don't claim to be a Rockwell, I chose to express myself through the written word. There are scores of nations in our world that do not have that same right. Most of the aforementioned represent them well. So, my question for this day is: Why does humanity desire freedom? At the risk of sounding trite, I believe the answer is simply that we were designed to live free. What other explanation makes any sense when you watch men and women willing to die for it? There is even a willingness to sacrifice one's own life for the freedom of future generations. Right now people are protesting the oppressive regime in Syria and dying by the hundreds. That depth of commitment, no, sacrifice is a more accurate term, can only be explained by an internal drive or calling.
The biblical account of the creation and subsequent fall in Genesis 1-3 is chock full of evidence that we were created with the ability and desire to choose for ourselves. It turns out that it is a blessing and a curse. As we all know that our (my) choices are not always the healthiest. Early in my Christian walk I struggled with why God would create us with the ability to choose knowing that we would make wrong choices. One of my first pastors explained to me that God loved us so much that He chose to create us with the ability to chose even though He knew we would ultimately reject His ways. His choice was motivated by love. I like that.
So, why do we desire freedom so much? Well, because it's in our design placed there intentionally by the great Designer: God. It's in our hands what we decide to do with this great freedom.
Until next time. God bless you,
Vinny