Love is a gracious and patient teacher

Godly love is impartial. By its very nature it is unearned. God lavished it upon me while I was still a sinner and His enemy. The expectation is that in having received such love I would now graciously extend the same to others. I'm still learning how to do this and I find myself regularly falling into the trap this world offers of loving only those who can return it to me. When falling short of a Godly standard I express this self-seeking "love" in many ways: Giving gifts to those who can give gifts in return, being kind to those who are kind to me, blessing those who bless me...

There was a woman in a recent class of mine who I found to be quite condescending. She displayed a "know-it-all" attitude at times and had a terrible sense of timing in asking questions. She was also very awkward in expressing certain personal details about her life. So how did I respond to her? I condescended in return (she deserved it), I ignored her knowledge (I'm much smarter), I scorned her questions (they were so obvious), and I laughed at her awkwardness (she shouldn't be talking of such things). In all these instances, she proved herself to be more righteous than I.

All of this has left me in a pensive state, considering how best to honor my Lord and my God. I keep coming back to three truths that prove the greatness of Jesus' love for me.

1) The greater the giver of love, the greater the love.

2) The less deserving the recipient of love, the greater the love.

3) The greater the expression of love, the greater the love.

I must extrapolate that the greatest expression of love must come from a completely perfect benefactor, received by a completely imperfect beneficiary, and expressed in a completely excellent manner. God is perfect love. Apart from Him there is nothing in me that is good. He could express His love for me in no greater way than to die in my place on the cross.

I was able to humble myself to the point of approaching the young lady and asking her forgiveness for my lack of love, but the bad taste from my conduct is still in my mouth. Thankfully, God's grace has given me permission and time to learn. The power of His patience is unsurpassed and not dependent on the excellence of my conduct. Jesus just keeps loving me, showering me with His grace, expressing it through his kindness. There is no better teacher.

Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue

I love how the bible uses language from the earth to describe deep spiritual truths. We've lost a lot of understand as many of us no longer work outside but consider the below excerpts from the Proverbs 18:

Proverb 18:
"4 The words of a man's mouth are deep waters;
    the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook."

"21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
    and those who love it will eat its fruits."

A "bubbling brook" sustains life in a desolate land just as loving words can water a parched soul. This "water" also helps to grow the fruit of the soul. Hateful words grow bitter fruit and loving words grow sweet fruit. Thus, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, but the corollary is also true: From the desire of the heart the ear receives.

Police brutality in the age of Michael Brown and Eric Garner

"Police brutality" has obviously been in the news quite a bit as of late. I put it in quotes as there are times when brutality (or extreme force) is necessary (arguably Michael Brown) and other times when it is not (Eric Garner). In the case of Garner, he had been hassled by the police dozens of times mostly about selling "loosies", or individual cigarettes, in a heavily regulated and taxed market that made the cost of a pack of cigarettes four times more than in bordering states and allowed for a thriving black market. My point is that, when you make a law for the police to enforce, it must be one that is worthy of being backed up by deadly force. After all, the law concerns itself with justice; not mercy. In no conceivable instance should Garner have been judged before death's door by the law for selling a legal product at a discounted rate. So next time you hear it celebrated that we are a "nation of laws" it should grieve your hearts. The law makes no man good and serves only to punish those who break it. How about us Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Libertarians come together to start rolling back the tidal wave of tiny, murderous laws and regulations that make at least 75% of us guilty of unknowingly committing at least one felony in our lives? No one should have to die for selling cigarettes.

I do not even judge myself

We started a bible study in Ephesians 1 on Friday at my house. The book is enormously important to the Christian as it begins with some incredibly important theology that is meant to establish the relationship between God and His children. It allows us to know who we are not from who we think we are, or from who others say we are, but from God in heaven. That is why in 1 Corinthians 4:3 the Apostle Paul refuses to claim any authority over himself. Pay attention to his words: "...it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." He is making the case that God is his judge and, because of that, he has no authority to claim his own identity. This is important because we clearly derive our identity from that which owns us. If we are God's then He tells us who we are. If we are slaves to sin, then such reveals our owner.

So who does God say we are? We need to look at His promises in Ephesians 1 to find out. Here is Paul's exposition of the spiritual blessings of God upon His children:

1) We are chosen by Him for eternal life before the foundation of the world (vs. 4)

2) We stand holy and blameless before Him (vs. 4)

3) We were predestined to be adopted as sons - a term connotative not of gender but of inheritance (vs. 5)

4) We are redeemed from slavery by Jesus' blood and forgiven of all our sin (vs. 7)

5) He has revealed to us the mystery of His will - the uniting of all things in Him (vs. 10)

6) We have been given the inheritance of Christ - or all things the Father has given Him (vs. 11)

7) Our inheritance of eternal life is guaranteed by the deposit of the Holy Spirit in our hearts (vs. 13-14)

This predestination along with the forgiveness granted by the power of God is critical to establish us in the firm hand of God. In fact, the power that the Holy Spirit has placed in our hearts is the same "that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead...far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named..." (vs. 20-21).

We have been made alive and if our identity in any way comes from our continued effort to define ourselves then we cannot rest assured in the spiritual blessings of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. You are either forgiven or you are not. You are either a son of God or you are not. You have eternal life or you do not. IT IS FINISHED! There is no middle ground that leaves us any wiggle room. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead does not leave any power for death to win. Once you are given the life of Jesus you cannot lose it. You cannot commit spiritual suicide when
you do not even own your life! Once God has called you His son you cannot just stop being His son. We have no power to rename ourselves once God has named us. That is why verse 21 establishes our identity "above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." Your name depends not upon your work but upon the work of Jesus.

Surrender and Suffering with Thanksgiving

At the beginning of the year I chose the word "surrender" as one to meditate upon and lift up to the Good Lord. I have often found myself with a repentant heart but one that is not surrendered. In other words, in important areas such as my lust, envy, jealousy and self righteousness I would stumble and repent and yet find myself stumbling in the same areas again. Of course, this is a normal part of human nature and a huge reason why I am so thankful for the One who bent heaven down to earth to rescue me. I have found that surrender is not just passively placing myself into a position where I accept the buffeting of the world around me, but actively choosing to buffet the world around me and then joyfully, with thanksgiving, accepting the consequences of my actions. We get to make our decisions in any given situations but the world gets to choose the consequences. I want to have the desire to give up my life fully to the power of my Father in heaven in both action and consequence. 

What are the ramifications of such a radical attitude? Well, in my more honest moments with myself, it is the understanding that, to the greatest degree, my actual life is an instrument to surrender into the hands of He who is most able to wield it well in the most impossible situations. We can consider the situation of those hiding Jews from the Nazis. "Tell us where the Jews your neighbors are hiding are or your family will be sent to the death camps!" Without faith in a GOOD and POWERFUL God, this situation has an easy solution. Surrender to the will of the Nazis. But God desires that we surrender our will to Him and protect the lives of the innocent. So the active expression of my work that is meant to buffet the world around me in such an instance would be to deny the Nazis their desire and trust that the life of my family while in God's hands is in a safer position than my surrender to evil could ever get them. My action would have a very clear repercussion but, with an eternal mindset, my attitude in the glory I give to God would be that of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3, It was demanded of them to bow down and worship the golden idol of King Nebuchadnezzar. If they did not, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. Their response?

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

These men made their choice and their action was to bow only to the One True God. They accepted the potential consequences even to the point of their deaths and, thankfully, in this instance God preserved their lives. That's the attitude God, in His grace, wants to develop in all of His children. We are to fully place our safety into His hands and, when it comes to bearing our cross, we actively choose to strike a blow against evil when it is our time even to our own worldly detriment.

One of my favorite scriptures I relate to surrender comes from 1 Peter 3:13-17:

"Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be trouble, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is it better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil."

The Little Boy in Every Man; The Wounded Girl in Every Woman

I've spent a large portion of my life living as a passive man, enviously cynical at many times of the adventures seen in hero stories: A fair maiden is held by a maleficent evil, an heroic adventurer fights the injustice, vanquishing the wickedness and winning the lady's heart. But I've come to realize that the fight is all too real and I've missed the point of the parable entirely.

As a man, I was made to strike a blow against evil. I was formed from the dust and filled with the very breath of God to be that valiant man. But long ago before I even knew God, evil struck at my manhood and tried to rob me of my life through the lust of passivity.

"You don't really need to fight for a woman."

"You're not a man.You're just a weak little boy."

"Look at all the times you've failed. That makes you a failure."

I gave in to these lies for so long. But God, who is rich in mercy and love, found me drowning in the mire of my own guilt and rescued me. For eleven years now He has spoken truth to me.

"You are my son. I am pleased with you."

"I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness."

"You are more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves you."

Eleven years. The fight has been brutal at times with very little rest. But my Lord spoke to me today and said, "You may fight with your body but it is my armaments you use. You can do nothing without Me."

My eyes are open. I will fight the war with faith that the words of God are true and the words of the Evil One are deceitful. There is more at stake than just my life. The life of every person trapped behind walls is also at stake. The walls of the imprisoned maiden are not always built by a villainous character. Often the bricks of her imprisonment are handed to her and she builds her own prison. These bricks are named by the Evil One to strike at the heart of the damsel:

"You are not beautiful."

"There is no one who will fight for you."

"Love is just a lie meant to break your heart with false hope."

The abused maiden is in need of a Truth that will set her free. The crushed man is in need of the same. It is God's design that the true identity of man and woman would complement one another and the Evil One's design that they should be torn asunder. It is war and importantly one every man must fight.

As a man of God, it is my calling to rise up and fight. I want to fulfill my desire to be knight in shining armor for a damsel in distress. So I bombard the Enemy's position and set the captives free with every truth from the Word of God. The Evil One may have bricks, but I have artillery:

"He has made everything beautiful in its time."

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."

"To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment."

Dear friend, find your identity in Christ. He is the strength for the weary and broken-hearted. All who cry out to Him in faith will be rescued. Men, end your passivity. Surrender to the power of God and He will train you to be a mighty warrior. In the words of Gil Bailie, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Jesus is the giver of life.

9-11 Reflections

I joined the Marine Corps after 9-11-01 to kill fanatical Muslims who wanted to die for a faith that professes to "love death more than we love life." Well, as the Marines would often say, "It is up to God to forgive and up to the Marines to arrange the meeting." That resonated deeply within me and gave me an outlet for the rage that consumed me in those days after nearly 3,000 people were killed. So off I went to the recruiter's office. How times have changed for me.

Many would say that my change was due to the resultant "mellowing" of one's nature as the years elapsed. I must disagree with that statement. Truthfully, I was adrift at the age of 19 with a religion that left me hopeless and seething. Anyone of a religion that is their own making will eventually come to such a conclusion. But now I have Jesus and He changes everything. It is written of Him:

"Remember that you were at that time se
parated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility."

I have since become a man more in touch with sorrow and grief for those who are perishing. As for God, it is my desire that "no man should perish, but that all should reach repentance" so, though I was again full of anger for the wickedness of the terrorists of ISIS, I was directed towards an approach of life-giving instead of life-taking. Don't get me wrong, their actions are deserving of death, but I began praying for the brutal men who found their sense of purpose in the slaughter of innocents. After all, was I not the same brutal man whose sin spilled precious Jesus' innocent blood on that cross? But God had mercy on me and gave me life. I must now do the same for God's enemies if I am to proclaim myself to be a friend of Jesus.

Living in the Moment

One of the greatest lessons that I have been learning this year is the necessity of living in the moment. Upon inspection, it is apparent that living in the moment cannot be done just for the sake of the moment as so many people suggest by the choices they make. For example, you cannot claim to be living simply because you choose to fall through the air after having jumped from a perfectly good airplane with the hope that your parachute opens! The momentary feeling of weightlessness does not, in and of itself, constitute life. Indeed, living in the moment well comes from an understanding of what the moment is for!

I was forced to use myself as an example this morning as I was thinking about a recent visit to a convalescent home. I went to offer some of my time to an elderly woman I have gotten to know but found myself full of annoyance with the expectation that she was going to be paranoid and bitter. She was this for a time and I sat back and listened to her complain without realizing that the PURPOSE of my visit at that moment was to inject LIFE into her surroundings. I was visiting a friend on the verge of death and not doing my utmost to row her away from the doldrums and into the life giving breath of The Spirit. No, I simply fell asleep on her. I couldn't even read the bible to her without dozing off. And that's the third visit in a row that has happened!

What's humbling and revealed to me a heart of transparent duty as opposed to overflowing love, is that I gave my friend the dregs of my day. I had been in school for eight hours and was exhausted. Of course I was probably going to fall asleep and fail to have the energy to take the conversation to better terrain. Life comes when it is gifted as a first fruit offering from the abundance of the heart as opposed to a last
fruit offering from what is left over. I only wanted to offer the leftovers because that is what the drudgery of duty conjures up. My next visit, therefore, will be in the morning when we are both bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Praise The Lord, for He rejoices over you with singing!

C.S. Lewis (from Reflections on the Psalms) provides an amazing perspective on why we should desire to praise Jesus, the Lover of our souls:

"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are, the delight is incomplete till it is expressed."

It is written in Zephaniah 3:17 that,

"The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing."

He expresses His love and enjoyment for you by rejoicing over you with singing! How will you express your praise for Jesus today?

The Cynic in all of us

Avoid cynical people. Examine your heart when you are one. To paraphrase Paul Miller and C.S. Lewis, those who think they can "see through" everything end up spending all their time looking at nothing. When all you ever see is an agenda, all you end up with is a bitter heart. Ironically then, the cynic's use of cynicism is a perverse lens with which to view the world. He looks through the colored lens for ulterior motives of the heart. Such terrain is not meant for our advances. The heart is God's territory. Spend your days in the presence of Jesus and His people who have an otherworldly hope. Consider His crimson stained glasses who, in perfect fellowship with His Father, "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." The exhortation then for us who are in fellowship with one another and The Father is that, "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith." LOOK to Jesus! Use His eyes of mercy and grace and a world of joy will open up before you as you bathe in His love.

Picture courtesy of: Holes Kaleidoscope Glasses by Pam Tietze

Hidden in Christ

Hidden in Christ. What does the term mean? A friend of mine named Ragan who is serving on mission in Papua New Guinea related to me a wonderful example she heard. Concerning our assurance of salvation we often forget that we have been made new in Christ. We fail to put that concept together with the statement that we are "hidden in Christ" and tend to consider Jesus as the proverbial fig leaf that Adam and Eve used to cover their shame from the sight of God. However, Christ is not simply a covering like the fig leaf that serves only to hide the man. No, his covering is one of righteousness and transformation from the inside out. In other words, if we have surrendered to Jesus, our hearts HAVE BEEN changed so now the way we will live WILL BE different! We do not "put on Christ" and simply remain the same ashamed person underneath.

Consider the thought exercise Ragan gave to me:

"We often think that Jesus is like a towel: He is our shield and comes between God and us. As a result, when God looks at us, He sees Jesus Christ and HIS perfection in place of our sin. We often try to hide our sin, or just look the other way. Then, when we realize that we've made a mistake, we quickly put he shield of Jesus Christ up between God and us. We say, 'Oh God, I'm so sorry. Forgive me and look upon Christ's perfection."

That is not the gospel at all. Christ has broken down the barrier between us and God. It is finished. We no longer have to hide. We are IN Christ. When Christ died upon the cross ALL our sins were in the future. God has forgiven us once and for all. We are a new creation!"

Whether a person is saved or not, they will always only ever do exactly what they want in any moment. The difference between a disciple of Christ and a disciple of the world? The disciple of Christ learns to "destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). That is the radical, gospel-centered life of Christ's disciples for it shows that what they want to do is surrender themselves over to be used by their loving Father.

You are not here for worldly comfort

You are not here for worldly comfort. You are here to strike a blow against evil. Live your life as arrow's fired from God's bow of righteousness. Search out evil and destroy it. Find those in need and given the provision. Seek out those in distress and point them to the God of Comfort! Surrender yourself over to the God who found YOU in the darkness and revealed to you the majesty of His glorious light! If you don't know how to do this, remember that God holds the bow. He will send you.

I was reminded of the new song by Need to Breath. Here it is!

Mysterious ways

Life is so full of inspiration when The Spirit of The Lord is dwelling in your heart! Today I just have to brag on Jesus for a bit as He really blessed me with the love of a friend who has very little life left to her. Her name is Delphia and she lives at a care clinic here in Escondido. Jesus blessed me with her as friend after my old office manager (Delphia's daughter) told her about me and my faith. Being a Christian and desiring more company, she asked her daughter if I would be willing to come visit her. I agreed to the proposition with the thought that such occurrences happen rarely in life. When The Spirit offers such an opportunity on a silver platter it is best to take it!

I wanted to befriend and serve this woman with the desire to bless her. It is easy as a young, 32-year-old man, to believe that the blessings would be a one way street. After all, what can an old woman who pees in her pants and can barely walk anymore do for someone who seemingly has his entire life before him? Whereas her talk is about whether or not to get a catheter and how much longer her cancer will permit her to have, mine is about mission trips to Utah and beginning massage therapy school. But these comparisons show the limit of what the world offers. We can call them "circumstances" (whether good or bad). Such worldly vanity is where the flesh stops and God takes over. He is not the God of circumstances and He was desiring to show me that I was not there to bless her so much as we were put into one another's lives to bless one another and ultimately give Him the glory of sacrificial love.

I was relating to Delphia some stories about a remarkable woman I knew and gearing myself up for the pious platitudes most old people (ok, almost all people) say when an eligible bachelor or bachelorette is speaking about the matters of the heart in relation to the opposite sex. My favorite such platitudes are, "Don't worry! You'll find someone when the time is right!" Or, "Keep putting yourself out there!" Or, "You're such a good person! I'm sure someone will come along soon and you'll snatch her right up!"

As if meeting the "right woman" is a matter of chance, my desire, my goodness, or my willingness to exert myself!

She spoke no such thing, however, but stopped me dead in my tracks after I said "I think I'm almost ready to meet someone." She simply replied, "No. It is not about when you are ready but when God is ready." Her wisdom cut to my heart because she not so subtly suggested that my pursuit of God was of ultimate importance. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all things will be added to you, as the scripture says. It was a breath of fresh air to have the guard around my heart pierced and find that my words had been used frivolously. Oh, that we would all seek to find and impart wisdom as if it were buried treasure! Her comment ended with a word of compassion that spoke to her own personal struggles. "Wait upon the Lord".

Neither of us knew where that scripture was exactly (indeed, it is all over the scriptures), but upon hearing I considered what I wanted to read to her from the Bible and settled on Psalm 27 as one of my favorite verses comes from King David's heart of hearts. He writes simply:

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.

Great blessings and delight came at the end of the psalm, however:

WAIT FOR THE LORD;
    be strong and let your heart take courage;
    WAIT FOR THE LORD!

Delphia and I laughed and laughed. We also cried. How good was God in that moment though? Delphia was so burdened with the meaning of her life, being effectively restricted to a hospital bed. "Wait upon Me" was all Jesus wanted her to hear. I was bringing attention to myself and my own plans and all Jesus wanted me to hear was, "Let me bless you in my time. I am so good and I love you so much. Receive the fullness of My joy!"

^{Proverbs 6}
There are six things the Lord hates,
    seven that are detestable to him:
        haughty eyes,
        a lying tongue,
        hands that shed innocent blood,
        a heart that devises wicked schemes,
        feet that are quick to rush into evil,
        a false witness who pours out lies
        and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Community. God hates its destruction. He instituted community in a specific fashion to bless and protect his people. This protection acts not only to restore those who have been hurt by others but also to restrain behavior that would lead to that wounding. We can be hurt by multiple sources: The world, with its constant grinding and hopelessness, people, who bite and devour one another and Satan, the destroyer and deceiver. We can be responsible only for ourselves and the way we offer ourselves to others.

We can use the proverb above as a template to see what our relationship to the community is, for the seventh thing God hates relates perfectly to the first six. No community of people, whether believers or not (but especially believers) will ever be strong when riven by haughtiness, lying, blood letting, scheming, evil, gossip, and belligerency.

This desire should produce in the children of God a strong desire for the gospel. The desired (if not always realized) expectation of community is that it be a place of love and grace; a place of healing and comfort. The gospel should bring about a desire for reconciliation and, indeed, Jesus takes His children out of this world and places them in community. We are one body, bound together by ligaments and sinews of love and grace. Let us seek one another out and express such a love!

Freely accepting gifts with true humility

Love and acceptance are not cheap that they should be found in the arms of that which has no life. They are priceless gifts. Though we know this truth, we constantly turn from it, trusting instead in the things that are made to fulfill us. We desire worldly things that propagate the status-quo of a guilty conscience. Indeed, such selfishness demands no change from us and has no expectations. It is self-pleasing to a fault and yet gives birth to death for its lack of honor. It kills the spirit of a man.

Mankind is a pitiable lot; full of foolishness. We are fickle and double-minded even towards those gifts which give us peace and joy. The Christian is by no means safe from this. So often is he prone to see himself as the undeserving yet guilty recipient of a gift that, in its majesty and liberty, comes the fullness of "being." Yet, the acceptance of a gift on the part of the recipient has nothing to do with what that person deserves, but rather has everything to do with the generosity of the giver. We should not feel shame when given the greatest of unearned gifts! I obviously speak of the gift of grace which, by definition, is unearned forgiveness. This gift is only understood by faith, through humility, in a personal relationship with the Gift-Giver. Thus, knowing our shortcomings is important, but knowing Jesus who freely forgives us for them by His grace is the pinnacle of our created purpose.

Limiting our freedom to find liberty

Some time ago I watched "John Adams", an HBO miniseries documenting the fascinating life of one of our country's Founders and second President of the United States. He is shown as an honorable man who sacrifices his own creature comforts, family life, fortune, etc. in order to "establish a more perfect union" based on the pursuit of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

In light of Adams' actions, I started thinking of a statement I heard often when I was younger. It was said that "Freedom isn't free" and it always made me take in a deep breath and consider those who had sacrificed their all. At a young age my patriotism (like many important things in early life) was only an uninformed feeling. I could not define "freedom". While pondering this idea I would come across definitions that did seem important, though limited. People would tell me that they were free to be able to drive between states without showing their papers. They were free to go out to the movies late at night. The one that takes the cake while perusing my memory banks is the classic statement of delinquent youth, however, to justify belligerency. After displaying a vulgar or uncouth attitude, I would often hear that it was one's right because "It's a free country".

This begs the question as to what the foundation of freedom is. If it is sacrificial then it finds its basis in morality as opposed to a natural "winner take all" mentality. If freedom is simply doing what one wants to do then we are no better than animals. Not many people would desire to make the case that animals have moral agency. Indeed, the moral person diminishes himself so that others can increase. He helps the needy and comforts the distressed. For instance, a drug addict who chooses to enroll himself in rehab is exercising his liberty by giving others control of a part of his life. His good works may start simply from constraining his ability to commit to bad ones. An indebted person who cuts up his credit cards does the same. On a deeper level, a married couple gives up their single rights and when they have kids they sacrifice their time alone. Freedom is not a license for anarchy. As shown above, some of the greatest freedoms come in willingly limiting ourselves and lifting others up.