Freedom

Wade's comment on the quote of the day has set me to thinking about freedom. The whole westward expansion was about freedom, and the American dream, and the possibility of self determination. There is certainly something romantic (not in the ushy gushy sense of the word) about the whole cowboy ethos: no attachments, no rules, no fences. You spend your days on the prairie and your nights beneath the stars. You drink and fight and love like there is no tomorrow, because there may not be. You live by your wits, your fists, and the six-shooter slung on your hip.

Terry, a close friend of mine and I were discussing the whole Pirates of the Caribbean franchise the other day. There really isn't that much different between the image they portrayed of the pirate's life and that of the cowboy's. The prairie and the pirate's ship represent the same thing - freedom. I guess that is why we are as enamoured of pirate legends as we are of cowboy stories. Anyway, Terry and I were discussing the way that the pirates in the movie used their freedom - lying, cheating, stealing, whoring, killing. Really and truly, they were the bad guys. So why did we pull for them and cheer when they won? Why do we love John Wayne's, or Bruce Willis', or Clint Eastwood's characters? They all played heroes with at least as many vices as virtues.

Perhaps they remind us of ourselves in some way. Though they are all scalawags, as Jack Sparrow would put it, in spite of themselves and though they might deny it, they still manage to do something good occasionally. I guess it gives us hope - though we are incredibly flawed, we hope that somehow that spark of the Divine will shine out from us.

I think, of course, that the other part of it comes from our desire to be dangerous. John Eldredge hit it on the head when he identified men's need to be dangerous. Who wants to be good according to society's definition? Bor-ing. But a man who is good and dangerous - now that is interesting. It's exciting. It's not safe. It is living outside of the fences.

The funny thing is that someone who is living according to the Spirit of God really isn't living outside of a moral fence - quite the opposite - but he is living free. He is living outside of the pens that the enemy would put him in - pens of guilt and shame. The free man doesn't need to indulge in the forbidden foods given to those locked in their pens who are being fattened for destruction.

The past 12 months have been for me an exercise in living on the edge. I am by no means and adrenaline junkie. I always evaluate risks before I act. But God has taken me on a faith journey this year that has tested my nerves like never before. I have been taken to the brink quite a few times, only to see the Lord step in at just the right time. The ride has been wilder than any roller-coaster that I have ever ridden. It has been exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time. And for the first time in my life, I am beginning to see the world outside of the barn.