Happy (early) birthday, USA! 

247? You don’t look a day over 246!

Actually, that number of your birthdays (247) is also a great reminder of when we need to be vigilant about protecting our hard-won American political freedoms; 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Back in my day – that is to say the day when I wove red, white, and blue crepe paper streamers through the spokes of my Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycle and rode it in the Hilliard, Ohio Fourth of July parade – I had a clear, uncomplicated understanding of what I meant by the word “Freedom.” 

Today I am not as confident in that definition.

• I once thought freedom meant I could pretty much do whatever I wanted to do.

• I got a little older and learned a little bit in school and came to think of the word “freedom” as synonymous with the American political system of democratically electing the country’s leaders. 

• Later, when I came to know Christ, I understood freedom as freedom from my sinful, God-averse nature coupled with the liberation that comes with hearing the word “Forgiven” pronounced over me. (Check out Galatians 5:13 to see Paul’s wise words on the subject of freedom.)

Lately though, I find myself more confused about the many uses of this word that has become such a touchstone of the American experience.

Some use it to mean “individual liberty.” As in, “Nobody better try and tell me what to do. I’m an American and that means if I feel like doing something I HAVE THE FREEDOM TO DO IT!!”

Some link the word “freedom” to the concepts of justice and equality. For these people, freedom means equal access for ALL to the resources, the education systems, the channels of power, and the healthcare systems this country has to offer.

Still others think of freedom as the license to check out… physically, emotionally, and spiritually… from everything going on around them.

So please help me out in my confusion. What does “freedom” really mean? Who does it include… both ideally and in practice? 

And while you’re at it, please have a go at helping me with my most perplexing conundrum; What, pray tell, is the relationship between FREEDOM and the whole idea of the COMMON GOOD?

For example, can we use the rationale of “the common good” as an excuse for monitoring everyone’s phones and internet usage to make sure no one is devising a plot to harm their neighbor? Or should we have the freedom to communicate with one another without worrying about Big Brother listening in?

Or does the “freedom” to own a gun mean we have to forgo the “common good” of making sure schoolchildren aren’t in danger of dying in a hail of bullets? 

So, once we have some of these sticky questions figured out, I will exercise my God-given, American freedom to light off a few hundred mini-explosives here in my yard to celebrate!

[Unless, of course, it tramples on the COMMON GOOD of peace and tranquility in the neighborhood.]

Abundant blessings;