Freedom!

Before the lockdown I would often wonder whether we were a people who lost all respect for boundaries. We did what we wanted, when we wanted. My actions and behaviours were my choice and if you didn’t like what I did or thought, that was your problem. Our definition of ‘freedom’ included freedom from responsibility and consequence. As long as my actions/behaviours/attitudes were right by me, so be it. The NZ Government very quickly picked up on this behaviour and challenged us to think of others. For the last six weeks we have been encouraged to live a different way. We’ve been asked to be kind. We were asked to consider the risk to ourselves AND to consider how we might manage the risk of our behaviour on others.  

While reading Galatians this morning I was reflecting on our recent reality. In Galatians 5:1 (ESV) Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” In 5:13 he writes, “For you were called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” In the last six weeks the New Zealand Government has called on all New Zealanders to practice our freedom with responsibility; with the understanding that our freedom has consequences for others. I wonder whether, with the impending move to level 2, we will remember what true freedom is, or whether we’ll return again to the yoke of slavery of self.