Today we celebrate freedom. I think it’s important for us to reflect on what freedom actually is. Our country initially had to fight for freedom from foreign control. This is one kind of freedom, but it’s definitely not the only kind. I looked up the definition of freedom and it means not being confined. To truly understand freedom, we must understand confinement.

There are different kinds of confinement aren’t there? There is physical confinement, but there is also spiritual and emotional confinement. In John 8:32 Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus is saying that truth liberates and lies enslave. This means that if we are going to live in freedom, we must live in truth. There is no freedom apart from truth.

Most people think they see objectively, but all of us have blind spots. Where are we not seeing truthfully? Where are we believing lies? These are the areas where we are not living in freedom. There is something called the Johari window that I think will add to our discussion.

The Johari window simply offers 4 categories to help us discover truth. They are…

1. Things I know about myself and others also know. (This is where we have freedom)

2. Things I know about myself that others don’t know. (My secrets)

3. Things others know about me that I don’t know about myself. (My blind spots)

4. Things I don’t know about myself and others don’t know either. (I need God to reveal these things)

We want to live our lives more and more in that first category. That is where freedom is. Each category carries with it some different action steps to get us to our goal.

1. This is the stuff we can work on with the help of others. This is the easiest category to make progress in.

2. To deal with secrets, I simply need to surround myself with trusted friends that I can confide in. They’ll be able to offer support as we let them know the things that we may be ashamed of or afraid to share.

3. We have to be bold to address blind spots. This is where we need to have some courage and ask others to tell us things about ourselves that we don’t know. We need people around us who are willing to tell us what we need to hear and not just what we want to hear. We can ask them honestly to help us see where our blind spots are.

4. Pray. Spend time in prayerful reflection and ask God to bring to your attention anything that he wants to deal with that you don’t know about. One of my favorite prayers in scripture is Psalm 139:23-24 and it says, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” I pray this prayer because it’s asking God to catch my blind spots.

It’s important for us to take a deeper look at what freedom is. I’m thankful for the freedom that we get to experience by virtue of simply living in this country. That being said, there are much deeper levels of freedom available to us. We would all do well to consider this and to ask ourselves two questions….

Do I really want to be free?

How high of a price am I willing to pay for it?