Freedom

We had a total and complete blast at the races last night! The kids all enjoyed it, and so did the grown ups! I was a beautiful evening full of laughter.  And even though we got home late, we got an extra hour of sleep (Praise Jesus) before of Daylight Savings Time ending!!!  We got up and went to church this morning, like we do every Sunday morning, then had lunch, and did some window-style shopping, and we are now back at the church, getting ready for Kalin's middle school band practice to start in about 10 minutes.  After this, we are going to wait around until about 6:15 because I am meeting a friend to borrow her external camera flash, so that I can go shoot a wedding on Friday with another friend of mine.  I'm really looking forward to that!  It will be the first wedding I've ever shot, so that's really exciting. 

So, what I'm thankful most for today, is the freedom we, in this country, have to come to church and worship God.  Many countries do not have the same freedom of religion that the US does, and I am so thankful for that.  I can't imagine living in a country where you are persecuted for reading the bible, or even having a copy of it.  I can't imagine being in a place where you are forced to worship whoever the government tells you to worship, and only at the allotted times.  But that's the beauty of living in America; we have the freedom to choose how we live our lives. 

I realize that Christianity isn't always well-liked, even in America.  There are plenty of places where Christianity and Christians are shunned because fo their morals and beliefs.  But no one, as far as I know, in this country, is put in jail for believing in God, or that Jesus died on a cross for their sins. 

I also realize that a lot of people don't like Christianity because it takes away their control - the bible calls us to "pick up our crosses and follow Him", and to "lean not on your own understanding" and "trust in Him, and He will make all your paths straight".  A lot of people don't like letting someone else, especially someone they cannot physically see or touch, be in charge of their lives.  They don't want someone else to pick what their career is, and when they are going to get married and have kids and get a promotion and buy a house and move to a different city.  People like to feel like they are in charge of their own destinies, and that's simply not what Christianity teaches, and therefore, people don't like it.  And, of course, that's their own perogative - to believe whatever they want to. 

Some people may even feel like Christianity has too many rules and regulations - too may guidelines to follow, and too high of a standard to meet, so they just don't bother with it, because they realize they will never be good enough.  I mean, really, only one man to ever live reached the standard that is set by God, and that man was the Son of God.  But what people don't realize is that, while we as humans will never be good enough to get into heaven on our own righteousness or good will, Jesus has paid our debt for us.  He took the punishment that we deserved upon himself, so that we didn't have to.  Because he loves us that much.