Free Indeed
Today is my oldest son’s birthday. I am celebrating with my wife Jill at 36,000 feet en route to a much anticipated season of respite and refreshment in Hawaii. It’s been one heck of a year. My son? He’s passing his big day in an 11x7 prison cell in Illinois. As I write those words the tears begin, again, to fall. They fall often actually – with every thought of him, every letter from him and every time I sit down to write to him. My heart aches. It will, to some degree, for a long time I suppose.
The dull ache notwithstanding, there’s a strange and unexplainable peace that I feel around all of it. To begin with, my son’s heart has finally bowed to Jesus. It’s inexplicable and miraculous. Only God has the power to do that. His correspondence is saturated with God-exalting excitement around the freedom he feels. Yes, freedom – “never less free, but never more free.” ...His words. Makes my tears fall more freely - tears of sorrow mingled together with the sweet tears of joy.
“If only…”, we ask. “If only he had yielded sooner…” I’ll never know the answer to that question. But I believe my son’s present and harsh reality is the thing that God has sovereignly chosen to use to turn a prodigal heart toward a loving Father. Not that God ever authors evil, but always He possesses the power to leverage it for His glory and our good. So I am humbled and grateful. It is mercy in its most unconventional form.
It’s an amazing thing to be free – to be loosed from the shackles that bind us. For some it’s fear – days darkened by the clouds of anxious dread. For some it’s substance or some other addiction – cruel guards at the prison of the misappropriated pursuit of pleasure, false security and self-manufactured peace of mind. And sin… well it shackles us all.
But Jesus is the key. In Him exclusively is found the portal to pure freedom. He alone can scatter the darkness. He is light. From Him flows the wellspring of abundant life – Zoe; life to the full.
So even though for now I have taken up residence behind the bars of my depraved flesh. I am free. The Son has set me free and I am free indeed.
It will be a long five years for us. We will miss our son and all of the times of joy that we might have shared together. But I am looking forward to the amazing life and ministry that awaits him. The Potter is doing His masterful work, both in my son and in me. Vessels for His use. Not perfect, but useful nonetheless…. The me of my dreams. A dream come true.
Father, thank you for the freedom that you have purchased with the blood of your only Son, Jesus. And thank you for masterfully shaping us into something useful. I am undeserving and I am grateful.
The dull ache notwithstanding, there’s a strange and unexplainable peace that I feel around all of it. To begin with, my son’s heart has finally bowed to Jesus. It’s inexplicable and miraculous. Only God has the power to do that. His correspondence is saturated with God-exalting excitement around the freedom he feels. Yes, freedom – “never less free, but never more free.” ...His words. Makes my tears fall more freely - tears of sorrow mingled together with the sweet tears of joy.
“If only…”, we ask. “If only he had yielded sooner…” I’ll never know the answer to that question. But I believe my son’s present and harsh reality is the thing that God has sovereignly chosen to use to turn a prodigal heart toward a loving Father. Not that God ever authors evil, but always He possesses the power to leverage it for His glory and our good. So I am humbled and grateful. It is mercy in its most unconventional form.
It’s an amazing thing to be free – to be loosed from the shackles that bind us. For some it’s fear – days darkened by the clouds of anxious dread. For some it’s substance or some other addiction – cruel guards at the prison of the misappropriated pursuit of pleasure, false security and self-manufactured peace of mind. And sin… well it shackles us all.
But Jesus is the key. In Him exclusively is found the portal to pure freedom. He alone can scatter the darkness. He is light. From Him flows the wellspring of abundant life – Zoe; life to the full.
So even though for now I have taken up residence behind the bars of my depraved flesh. I am free. The Son has set me free and I am free indeed.
It will be a long five years for us. We will miss our son and all of the times of joy that we might have shared together. But I am looking forward to the amazing life and ministry that awaits him. The Potter is doing His masterful work, both in my son and in me. Vessels for His use. Not perfect, but useful nonetheless…. The me of my dreams. A dream come true.
Father, thank you for the freedom that you have purchased with the blood of your only Son, Jesus. And thank you for masterfully shaping us into something useful. I am undeserving and I am grateful.