The Old Man on Freedom
The old man sought me out to lecture on freedom.
“I’m for it of course, but what is it but the chance
to fulfill our destiny--which is to worship
our Maker. For this cause we were made, remember?
Does it seem constraining to take orders from God?
How much worse to play slave to some other master!
“That which brings you into bondage is your master,
be it sin or righteousness. You can’t have freedom
from everything--those who throw off the rule of God
are still bound by sin and death. This life is our chance
any pleasure worth picking death over worship!
“The one ‘right’ worth the name is the right to worship.
Infringe on that, and all is lost. What cruel master
could decree that his subjects should not remember
their Lord? It offends nature, destroys all freedom,
transforms glory and dignity to dust and chance,
by removing God’s image from the light of God!
“On the other side, what can be a right if God
has forbidden it? It’s not that I like worship
and another man likes vice, and deserves the chance
to practice it. It’s more like, all have one master
who appoints the proper limits of our freedom.
These stay the same, regardless if we remember.
“Whence comes liberty? Think son, try to remember:
‘No liberty without life, no life without God.’
To whom else could anyone appeal for freedom?
His law applies to all--not just those who worship.
Civil governments, then, should help weak men master
their lusts, lest they transgress Divine Law at every chance.
“With ‘free will’, the Lord indeed gives us all the chance
a nation has the collective right to master
sin, not be complicit in it. To obey God
is praise, to help our neighbor do so is worship.
Too much license is a curse, and not true freedom.”
I knelt and thanked our Master for giving me this chance
to remember: Just laws reflect the Law of God,
that all might worship in holiness and freedom.