The Freedom Paradox

Some­one once said that, “the one most respon­si­ble is the one most free.” It is an inter­est­ing para­dox to pon­der. We nor­mally equate being free with hav­ing no respon­si­bil­i­ties at all. The pop­u­lar def­i­n­i­tion seems to reflect the men­tal­ity of a col­lege stu­dent on Spring Break, rather than the life of a com­pany CEO. True free­dom car­ries a deeper nuance then being tem­porar­ily care free.
If you want to destroy a teenager, give him or her unlim­ited money with no respon­si­bil­i­ties. In a week they become a slave to their own emo­tional whims. By what­ever form, it is just a mat­ter of time until they self-destruct. They are not free. They do not have the bound­aries nec­es­sary to be free. Therein lies the para­dox. Human free­dom is only found within vol­un­tary or imposed lim­i­ta­tions.
Being spir­i­tu­ally free means being yoked with Christ. The spirit soars as it helps pull the load of chang­ing the world for the bet­ter. On its own, with­out an impos­si­ble task, the spirit with­ers. Nar­cis­sism is the worst mis­ery of all. There is noth­ing worse than hav­ing our own needs as our pri­mary pre­oc­cu­pa­tion. We can only find our­selves by los­ing our­selves in some greater pur­pose.
Many peo­ple have short-lived retire­ments. They dis­cover that open-ended time can be quite a mon­ster. They often join social ser­vice clubs, become more active in their church, or even go back to work. Know­ing what they do is vol­un­tary, makes them feel even more free. They enjoy their job again, and even more, because they real­ize that they do not have to do it. Real free­dom is not run­ning through a meadow, it is car­ry­ing a cross.