What would you do for someone else's freedom?

 

 In light of Veteran's Day, I think a lot of people have freedom on their minds. 

We are celebrating a day of remembrance for those who have fought and died so that we could enjoy the freedoms we enjoy while living in this country. The many who are willing to put their lives on the line for people they don't even know. 

I remember when my sister got married in Mexico. My brother and her dad were on our way through the airport to leave for Mexico, when we saw a great line of men and women in camouflage passing by us. Who would have thought the simple words, "Welcome home" would taste so sweet coming from our mouths? But that was nothing compared to the gratitude they showed in return. 

As I was driving around today (fighting to make my defrost work so I wouldn't kill anyone between banks) I heard the song linked below. It's forceful chorus and inspiring verses got me really thinking about freedom. 

What would you do for someone else's freedom? This is a thought that pulls our focus away from ourselves. In a way we are asking not "What am I worth?" but "What is that lady in the drive thru worth?" or "How much is that guy that almost took off the front of my truck in the parking worth?" Because even these people have their freedom fought for daily just like yours. 

So what would you do for their freedom? Would you leave your home and your family for an extended amount of time? Would you venture to a foreign land in which you and the culture surrounding you don't understand one another? Would you spend days or weeks without proper bath, food, or sleep? Would you put yourself on the receiving end of a bullet? Or ridicule? Or a vicious torture device constructed of leather and metal? Or a crown of thorns? Or a cross?

"Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into headquarters and gathered the whole company around Him. They stripped Him and dressed Him in a scarlet military robe. They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and placed a reed in His right hand. And they knelt down before Him and mocked Him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they spit on Him, took the reed, and kept hitting Him on the head. When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe, put His clothes on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. As they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man named Simon. They forced this man to carry His cross. When they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Skull Place), they gave Him wine mixed with gall to drink. But when He tasted it, He would not drink it. After crucifying Him they divided His clothes by casting lots. Then they sat down and were guarding Him there." (Matthew 27:27-35)

Isaiah prophesied repeatedly the coming of the Savior. He described his suffering as thus: "His appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being." (52:14)

Romans 8:1-4 - "Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death^. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

Romans 6:22 - "...the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life."

What does your freedom mean to you? Have you really thought about what it cost? In truth, it costs you nothing but a little humility, admitting that you can't save yourself. But it cost an innocent man everything.