Don't Lock Me In
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
My dear encountered couples:
We often seem too long to be free spirits and do what we want when we want. Let me be, let me do, don’t get in the way of my whims and desires is the philosophy of many.
Wouldn’t it be great to be free of obligations and dependencies?
We seem to crave freedom, being obliged to no one, dependent on nobody. Teenagers are known for trying to get out of home duties and free themselves from their parents.
Isn’t there an old cowboy song expressing similar sentiments? “Don’t lock me in.” The facts are: We cannot be totally free. We were all created with needs, needs that can only be filled by God and other people. Ask the prodigal son. He gave in to the free spirit craving. Wasn’t long before he came running home to Daddy.
Being a free spirit is a privilege permitted only to God. And he chose to reject it. God has chosen to be obligated to us; his Spirit chose to be imprisoned in us, working for us day and night.
God made us, we soon broke; he took on the obligation to fix us. He took on an endless task: we keep breaking ourselves, God keeps fixing. When God chose to create us, he also chose never to be free again. Love does that. It locks in the one who loves. And oh, how so much God loves us!
Want to be free? Then don’t love. Want to be miserable? Then be a prodigal son or daughter. Run from God and run from people.
