“Men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains” said Rousseau. Nobody likes chains, because they tie us down, restrict our freedom and limit our pursuit. One of the strange paradoxes of life is how almost all of us want to be free, yet deep down in our hearts we long to be loved and wanted. We love to be independent, yet we crave to belong, to be part of a family or community. It’s funny how many of us often understand freedom as the absence of chains, and in our pursuit of boundless freedom sometimes we just break everything that seem like a chain in our life.
Someone once said our culture is best described as “low commitment culture”, in fact it would not be an exaggeration if we say we are almost a “no commitment culture”. We just don’t like the idea of being committed or being hooked to something or someone for a life time. That is why we often hear the phrase “No strings attached” in almost all commercials. We don’t like strings because they tend to control our behavior, our choices and eventually our lives.
One of the strange paradoxes of life is how almost all of us want to be free, yet deep down in our hearts we long to be loved and wanted. We love to be independent, yet we crave to belong…
Everyday each of us tries to cut some stings only to find ourselves being hooked to other new strings. Peter Rhebergen in his article “Absolute Freedom” gives this insightful observation: “In our dictionaries freedom is defined as the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints. Our childhood’s dream of adulthood is the desire to be independent. Our adulthood’s dream of childhood is the desire to be free from responsibility and enjoy a life without care. In each case the dreamed of freedom is idealized. A child dreaming of being an adult wants the independence that the adult has but does not understand the responsibility that accompanies it. An adult dreaming of being a child wants the carefree life that the child has but does not remember that a child is incapable of doing things that most adults take for granted.”
Our childhood’s dream of adulthood is the desire to be independent. Our adulthood’s dream of childhood is the desire to be free from responsibility and enjoy a life without care. In each case the dreamed of freedom is idealized.
There is often a serious flaw with our understanding of true freedom. In Peter Rhebergen’s words “When the longed for freedom is realized, it eventually becomes clear that it did not result in the removal of restrictions but in the exchange of one set of restrictions for another. The difference between an adult contentedly remembering childhood and an adult desperately reliving childhood is that one has learned to live within the restrictions of adulthood while the other keeps trying to overcome them.” Thus absolute freedom without any strings attached is just an illusion which many of us dream for.
John Newton the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace” wrote a powerful poem titled: “The Kite”. The Kite in Newton’s poem dreamed of being one day cut free from its string, and eventually when the kite manages to cut free it realizes that it has no wings of its own to fly. Julie Ackerman writing about this kite says “The kite does finally manage to tug itself free, but instead of soaring higher in the sky, it crashes into the sea. The analogy calls me to reconsider some “strings” that make me feel constrained. Vows. Promises. Commitments. Responsibilities. Although such things make me feel tied down, God uses them to hold me up…. Before cutting any string, make sure it’s not one that’s holding you up.”
In Luke Chapter 15 Jesus portrays the story of a young man who sought freedom from his loving father. He demanded his share of wealth and ran as far as possible from his father. He was a perfect picture of a young man with no strings attached; well as the story unveils it only took him few days to realize that he was now bound by heavier chains that tied him to his new life with the pigs. Yes, chains are never comfortable, strings are always restricting in life, but we should never forget that some of these strings are our lifelines; our very existence depends on them. So before you decide to break all the chains and let yourself loose, think of the kite, the very string that restricted the kite also enabled it to soar high in the sky, the very relationships (family, friends or God) that restrict us also enable us to soar high in life.
Yes, chains are never comfortable, strings are always restricting in life, but we should never forget that some of these strings are our lifelines; our very existence depends on them…the very string that restricted the kite also enabled it to soar high in the sky.
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
