"I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice."
-Red, Shawshank Redemption
For better or worse, here are my thoughts on freedom:
I have never really really known despair, neither in my own nor the life of anyone else I've really known. I don't mean temporary, fickle, I-go-to-Whitworth struggles of a first world country kind of despair, but real hopelessness. The kind I've only read about in books. African slaves, Holocaust victims, vying cancer patients, twelve year olds exploited for sex, child soldiers to name a few. It's the kind where every drop of hope and human dignity is squeezed from a soul and wrung out to dry--where life no longer has meaning. Rock bottom. It's the kind of pain that eats a person alive stripping him of all desire to even be free again. "I'm telling you, these walls are funny. First you hate them. Then you get used to them. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on them. That's institutionalized." Bondage becomes the new master.
The truth is in our own little ways, just like dreamy Morgan Freeman have forgotten that there is life outside of stone walls and metal bars; it's the reality we've come to accept. We know no different, or at least, pretend not to. The form-fitted boxes we have created for ourselves make us feel safe. We draw back at the face of what could be and sometimes even bury it in deep piles of distractions so that it might not disappoint. We cower in fear of the very thing we crave the most. I would know because I do it every day. BEAUTY is real and grand. It's the sweet song that every singer tries to sing, every artist tries to recreate. It's the deep peace of the wild. It's a new adventure, a real human triumph. It's a relationship that you are unafraid to give to God. It's selfless agape love. However, sometimes it's hidden, so we do the worst possible thing we possibly could: fill the empty spaces with things that are tangible and immediate. Essentially, we are going back to the rhythm and comfort of slavery. As we know, one does not have to fight for his own enslavement. Newness is scary and letting go is worse. We'd rather stay right where we are and grow only alongside our own culture. And God forbid we be still and listen. No, no God might have something to say. Instead, we act like there is never enough time to live.Rather than the creator, we consume ourselves with all things created. We trade the glory of God for an image, a cheap imitation even. It's just easier that way.
More than anything I want to really really live. GOD, I crave beauty. I think back to all the times in my life when I really felt alive, when I could hear my heart sing, none of which were a result of taking a passive, easy choice. Real living is in those times you experience something so beautiful you're heart aches. It's more than just learning to slow down. It's taking the time to be. It's feeding your soul rather than your emotions. Little tastes of heaven here on this earth whenever we experience something truly remarkable. However, life must begin at the end of our stone walls.
The worst thing that we can possibly do is believe that we are too far in.
You're not lost yet. Nope, no one is.
"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.
Romans 5: 2-4
Keep it Real
Smo
nice writing; nice insights.
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