My neighbor and I were sitting on the patio and "chewing the fat", dogs lazily draped across us. He had just heard about "the ice melting" and was concerned about what we needed to do to fix it. In open-mouthed astonishment that he had never heard of global warming before, there was nothing I could think of to add. With more responsibility than I can say grace over now, I certainly can't tackle that problem.
He moved on to the topic of the senatorial race and the pictures of Senator Cochran's wife that were recently published. I can't see who benefited from that, but I can see who was hurt by it. That's as much as I had to offer on that subject.
Conversation meandered through several other topics in the news before he decided he needed to get going. As he was leaving, he summed things up. "I guess everyone just loves bad news," he said. I didn't argue with him, but I'm not sure he's right.
Perhaps the problem is not that people love bad news. Perhaps the problem is that we do not love good news. The best news of all is that Jesus died and rose again to set us free from the hold sin has on us. Maybe the root problem is that we like sinning (at least for the moment we are doing it) and don't really want to stop.
Jesus said, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36) As we in the United States pause to remember those who have died to secure our freedom, we need to answer one very important question.
How free do we want to be?
Do we want to merely be free to do whatever we want, or do we want to be free of sin's enticement and hold on us? Perhaps it is not the hold of sin but the consequences of sin we hope to avoid. The only way to be free from the consequences of sin, however, is to be free of our passion for sin. That freedom cannot be bought with guns or grenades. That freedom can only be bought with the blood of Jesus.
How free do you want to be?
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