A Time for Freedom

It’s that time.

Time for matching bedspreads, welcoming free food, nervous sorority girls, & wandering freshmen.

Time to embrace your freedom! Freedom to… choose your friends, your major, your budget, your diet, your curfew, your boyfriend, your schedule, and your priorities.

Freedom that’s been luring you, complete with anxiety & thrill, those last few years of high school.

Freedom? My “freedom” led me straight to the strongest bondage of slavery I’ve ever experienced. I based my new found freedom in college on the promises of this world. Which friends promise the wildest time? Which major promises the most money? Which budget promises the most new clothes? What diet promises the skinniest figure? Which boyfriend promises that he loves me? Which schedule promises the most time for laziness?

I viewed freedom so narrowly that I allowed it to lead me down the path of destruction. “Professing to be wise, I became a fool, and exchanged the glory of God for an image in the form of corruptible man... I exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Romans 1:22-25 The things of God slowly faded. Eighteen years of showing up and sitting in the pew proved to be a weak defense for my rapidly deteriorating “good character.” The freedom I’d longed for left me bitter, disappointed, sad, disgusted, and angry all at once.

“You are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.” Romans 6:16

God found me, came to death, and pulled me out – a sad, despicable creature. He made me lovely. He showed me grace. He cleaned the stains that a warped idea of freedom had covered me in. “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” Romans 6:22 God replaced my thoughts with His and led me to an understanding of freedom in newness of life that is unattainable without His Spirit of revelation.

Freedom to hope in goodness, to love purely, to live innocently, to be guiltless & shameless, to be passionate & humbled by a purpose far greater than mankind can fathom. Freedom based solely on the promises of God. That is the only faithful, unchanging promise I’ve discovered in a world where everything is promised to change.

As you walk down the hallways of your dorm, pray for grace and boldness to attack the demons that rule in deception in the rooms of your peers, dashing their lives with the disappointment of a false freedom. Those who are choosing their freedoms based on the promises of this fading world DO have a sense of hopelessness & a desire for something they can’t quite put their finger on. In God’s strength and will, help them understand. Give them the opportunity to accept a freedom that releases them from the bondage of sin’s freedom.

Is she crying herself to sleep? Is he lost in porn? Is the guy upstairs punching his fist through the wall? Is the cheerful girl across the hall throwing up her dinner? Are they cutting? Is he worshipping Satan? Is she dealing? Ask the questions that are easier to be swept under the rug. Show love by showing interest.

Find courage in the power of Jesus Christ who saved all us wretches:)