Defining Freedom

Dictionary.com has seventeen definitions of freedom; they all relate to each other and are similar in concept. So, for the sake of brevity, I'll list my top four:

1. The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.
2. Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3. The power to determine action without restraint.
4. Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom

I like to start from the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start (excerpt from Do, Re, Mi, Sound of Music). It’s best for all of us to start at the beginning so that we are standing on the same premise. Even though many of us will have different ideas and concepts of freedom, we may need to come back to these definitions to keep us on track.

Without confinement, external control, interference, regulations, without restraint, all these words remind me of the part of the movie Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufresnes played by Tim Robbins escapes from prison, tears off his prison shirt and raises his hands and face to the sky and just laughs. He escaped from confinement, external control, and restraints. What an amazing feeling he portrayed on film!

Have you ever heard that freedom isn’t free? What sort of cost to freedom is there? I think the biggest cost to freedom is responsibility.

Imagine giving a toddler all of the freedom he wants, what would happen? Perhaps he would walk out on the road and get hit by a car, perhaps he might pick up a sharp knife and stick it in his mouth, perhaps he'd pick up something decayed and dirty and eat it! The toddler isn’t aware of the dangers of this kind of freedom.

What if you needed to get to somewhere across the country quickly for a family emergency and someone you knew owned an airplane and said to you, “Here, I can’t take you but here are the keys, take my airplane and you’ll get there on time!” Not a good idea, unless you’ve had the training to fly his plane. So, freedom has its limitations! We can’t expect freedoms without some level of knowledge of the implications of our actions that we are free to do. Most of us gain this knowledge through our own and others' experiences. We take courses, read books and listen to our parents, teachers and mentors. Steven Covey says in his books that responsibility is a level of maturity. The bible says that if we are given much then much is required of us.

So the more we know how to do, the more we are free to do. This may sound too obvious for most of you but yet I hear statements like, “I wish I could just win the lottery and that would solve all my problems!” Or, “I just need a lucky break, then I’ll be able to do what I’d always hoped I would do. Or, “If I just didn’t live on the bad side of town, I could do anything I’ve always wanted.” If anyone says something like that within earshot of me, they will usually hear something from like, “Really, what do you mean by that?”

I remember a lady, who I worked with in government, said that she wished she would win the lottery. I knew she was a Christian from previous conversations and I mentioned the bible quote about being given much and that much is required. I told her that winning a lottery is like throwing the keys of a car to a 5 year old and telling him to have a great time! Most people who win the lottery are worse off in about 2-5 years, we’ve all read and heard reports about this. I also said that there are two main reasons we don’t have a lot of money, one, we don’t know how to keep it, and secondly, we usually don’t know more than one or two ways to make it. Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad says, “There are two problems with money, not having enough and having a lot! Both are problems that need education.” She agreed and smiled but I’m sure she still wished she won the money, I think we all do. I think we all find it quite incredible that people could be worse off after winning a lottery.

Responsibility is a very big key to freedom. Knowing what to do with the many challenges we are faced with day to day will determine the level of our freedom. So, the more problems you know how to solve, the less constraints and restraints you’ll have, the more freedom you’ll have. When I hear my kids say things like, “This is too hard!” or “I wish I didn’t have so many problems!” I might say, “Great, hard is good! Imagine what it’ll be like when the hard thing becomes easy! The size of the problems you know how to solve is directly proportional to how much you will be compensated."

If you run away from your problems what will you be able to accomplish for yourself and others? Tackle the problems, find someone who’s already solved the same problem, learn from them and solve it yourself. Freedom!