How much more important are you than birds!

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear.  For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.  Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them.  How much more important are you than birds!" - Luke 12:22-24

Freedom is of inestimable worth.  In fact, "For freedom Christ set us free" (Gal 5:1).  Our culture has come to misunderstand freedom and mistake it for license, doing whatever one wants.  Is this what Christ has set us free for?  To do what we want?

What's missing is an understanding that freedom isn't just freedom to do, but also freedom from.  Is is possible that the freedom to do, license, could actually bind us further and reinforce our shackles?

We as individuals, as human persons, are of infinite value and dignity.  We are more important than birds, and were made for something much, much, much greater: God himself.  Doing what we want, if it is contrary to God's plan and love, may feel great but at the same time throw chains over our shoulders and around our ankles.  How?  Because, "everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin."  If our desires are disordered, they can control us instead of the other way around.  Freedom from sins and desires that bind and shackle open us up to do his will: this is authentic freedom.

To say our culture is in a state of crisis, is sick and needs a doctor, is a truism: everyone knows it.  It's like a resounding gong that might have once been a shocking call to action for all Christians but has now grown stale and faded out.  The culture wars wage on, but to speak of them is old news to many.  I know I can't change the culture, but maybe I can help a head or heart.