"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Romans 6:1-2

It takes tremendous discipline to be free.

What a strange truth. Isn't the definition of freedom being allowed to do whatever you want?

It doesn't seem to be a very good definition, in that doing whatever you want makes you a slave to your own desires. Doing whatever you want can hurt the ones that you love. Doing whatever you want can isolate you. And what good is freedom if you lose everything you ever loved by exercising it too much?

I've been thinking about this all week. I just took a trip with my friend Rosie to Telluride, CO. The community there is passionate about praying, passionate about seeking the face of God, passionate about letting people know this Love that they have found.

I have been passionate about those things, also. I don't think I ever stopped being passionate about them.

But somehow, the freedom I have has watered these passions down.

What I mean is this: I am convinced that God loves me unconditionally. I don't want to be boxed into a certain way of spending time with Him, become to religious in my thinking, feel obligated to tell everyone I meet about Him. I know He will love me whether I do these things or not.

But lately I've been realizing that my freedom in the Lord, the knowledge that He will keep on loving me, has slowly allowed my heart to grow stagnant.

I love that Jesus' grace makes it so that I don't have to fulfill obligations in order to be loved. But when I refuse to be disciplined in certain areas, my "freedom" can hurt my relationship with God, can slowly diffuse the light that is in me from reaching the world. And somehow that negates the freedom by making me a slave to my own fears, my own selfishness.

I often try to think of my relationship with God in terms of an earthly marriage relationship, because I think God is very relational just like we are. In this situation, it would translate something like this. " Have you and your husband been able to spend any good time together lately?" "No, I know that He loves me, so I don't feel obligated to have to spend time with him."

How silly does that sound when put in those terms? It's wonderful to know that someone loves you unconditionally, but that doesn't negate the fact that you have certain obligations. If you refuse to spend time with each other, you will never get to know each other. If you refuse to sacrifice, nothing will ever grow. If you use your freedom in the relationship as a means to grow stagnate in your love, what good is that freedom?

"'Everything is permissible'"—but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive." – 1 Corinthians 10:23

I work a lot with churches that have a new way of looking at things- churches that are sick of the status quo, sick of religion, sick of being hypocrites, sick of hurting people that don't know Jesus, sick of being boxed in. All these things are good to be sick of. But I'm starting to realize that some of us have thrown out some of the good with the bad. The beauty of gazing upon the Lord's face. Praying with each other on a regular basis. Fighting for the spiritual breakthrough of a city. I know that in some ways because of this mentality I have unwittingly given up these things in the name of "not being obligated." Everything is permissible to me. And in using that permission I lose so much.

I heard this story years ago and still think about it some times. Of a woman who was married to a horrible, controlling man. Every day he would give her a list of chores to do. Every day she would try and try to do everything on the list. Some days she would succeed and he would reward her. Other days she wouldn't succeed and she would be punished.

The controlling man died, and years later she married another man. This man loved her unconditionally. She knew that there was nothing she could do that would stop him from loving her. One day she was sweeping and came across one of her old chore lists. She started weeping when she realized that she was doing almost everything on the list without even thinking about it. Her motivation was different now. Before, she would do everything on the list out of fear. Now, she did everything on the list out of gratefulness.

I think this is the key to freedom. Freedom is not doing anything you want. Freedom is living your life out of gratefulness rather than fear. Every time you take the time to listen to God through His word, every time you converse with a homeless person, every time you pray, it is an outpouring of your love for God, a remembrance of the way that He loved you first.

Jesus gave everything He had so that we could come to Him through His love rather than our own merit. He made it so that we could live a life without fear. If we would remember that every time we did anything, what gratefulness would pour from our hearts. And when all that we do pours out from our gratefulness, we are truly free.