People fought for this. To set up this system of government, to secure these rights. To wrench us free from a controlling church or an oppressive culture. People fought against the elements, against biology itself to give us this health, this life expectancy. People have, since Prometheus, developed technology that frees us from backbreaking drudgery and toil.
And what do you do with this freedom, this incredible bounty?
You spend it fiddling on your phone. You spend it obsessing over what other people have. You spend it gossiping about nonsense. You spend it being afraid or lazy, failing to put yourself out there or to be yourself. You take drugs. You drink too much. You spend it procrastinating, doing the same things you’ve always done. You spend it complaining, wishing things were better.
“Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life,” Marcus Aurelius writes in 170 AD in Meditations. This is not freedom — on the contrary, it’s almost a form of willful slavery. You can do anything you want, and you choose to do this? C’mon. This is not how you will want to have spent your inheritance. This is not what it was all for. You are capable of so much more than this — and you know it.
People struggled, sacrificed, invented, endured, and died so that you could have choices they never had. Do something with it.
Daily Stoic
My Commentary:
Freedom is one of life’s greatest gifts — and one of its greatest responsibilities.
We inherited freedoms that others sacrificed greatly to secure. Generations struggled for political liberty, religious freedom, education, medicine, technology, and opportunities they could scarcely imagine. Yet freedom can easily be wasted.
We can be free from oppression and still become slaves — to our phones, possessions, addictions, envy, anger, fear, or endless distractions.
Christianity understands this paradox. St. Paul wrote, “For freedom Christ set us free.” But he also warned us not to use freedom selfishly. Christian freedom is not simply the ability to say, “I can do whatever I want.” It asks a much greater question: “What should I do with the life God has given me?”
Jesus was completely free, yet He used His freedom to serve. He healed, forgave, welcomed, taught, sacrificed, and ultimately gave His life for others.
That is freedom with a purpose.
Perhaps someday God will not ask how many choices we had, but what we did with them. Did we use our education to enlighten? Our prosperity to share? Our voices to encourage? Our time to love? Our freedom to defend the freedom and dignity of others?
We have inherited an extraordinary treasure.
Don’t spend it merely scrolling, complaining, comparing, consuming, and waiting for tomorrow.
Put down the phone. Look up. Notice who needs you. Use your gifts. Take the risk. Do some good. Love somebody.
People sacrificed so that we could be free.
Christ asks us to make that freedom worth something.
How often do YOU find yourself merely scrolling, complaining, comparing, consuming, and waiting for tomorrow?
FOR EVERY SETBACK, GOD HAS A MAJOR COMEBACK!
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