It is the fourth of July weekend, and as I write this, I am hearing fireworks go off continuously. You step outside and you can’t help but have this sense of celebration and freedom. My mind went to several places.
The first place it went was the reason we celebrate Independence Day – aka the fourth of July here in the united states of America. So I took it upon myself to read and look over what the deceleration of independence actually read and the history of it. Here is what I found:
You can read the full declaration of independence for yourself, here. But their motivation for the declaration of independence was “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The declaration of independence went on to explain that “For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:”, “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:” and “For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury” just to name a few. Essentially, e government controlled who we did business with, taxed us for things they did not approve of, and for depriving our right for our voice to be heard. Of course, I would want to break away from that kind of control and manipulation. One could say that despite all that hard work of our founding fathers, we are still under that kind of control, but that is not the point of this blog post. We as a country, broke away from that freedom, we as a people have the right to walk in that freedom if we so choose. Because we need to fight every day for our freedom.
As I looked this up though, I also found my self reflecting on what freedom means to me today. So I decided to break down the terms “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. That is after all, what the founding fathers wanted for every American citizen.
1. Life – What does it mean to have an independent life? In order to answer this question, we have to define, what is life?
According to Dani Johnson life is defined as health, marriage, children, extended family, work, fun & adventure, charity with the goal of leaving a lasting legacy.
The first one is health, health is defined as spiritual, Emotional, physical, financial, and mental. This is where I will be spending majority of my time talking to you, because this is ultimately where the foundation of the true freedom comes from.
- Spiritual health is the first and foremost area of health, that I believe impacts every area of your life. Kĕpha Bĕt (2 Peter) 2:18-19 (TS2009) “For speaking arrogant nonsense, they entice – through the lusts of the flesh, through indecencies – the ones who have indeed escaped from those living in delusion, promising them freedom, though themselves being slaves of corruption – for one is a slave to whatever overcomes him promising them freedom, though themselves being slaves of corruption – for one is a slave to whatever overcomes him” and Galatiyim (Galatians) 5:13 (TS2009) “For you, brothers, have been called to freedom, only do not use freedom as an occasion for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” We are promised freedom, as long as we use it to love and serve those around us with an unconditional heart. True ultimate spiritual freedom is having the ability to resist temptation when it comes your way. You are no longer bound by sin and no longer controlled by the wrong doings in your life. You have the choice to walk away.
- Having freedom in the area of your emotional health is when you are no longer controlled by your emotions. When I was in a bad place emotionally, I would have breakdowns at a moment’s notice and most times with out warning or reason. Emotional state of health begins in our mind. This is why the Bible tells us to hold our thoughts captive. I am also a firm believer in that there is a time to cry and a time to rejoice. Just because someone cries or shows negative emotion does not mean they are weak, emotionally. It actually means just the opposite, they have enough strength to be vulnerable to express the emotion, but they do not allow that emotion to control their life. This can be an emotion a jealousy, an emotion of fear, just to name a few. Jealousy can be good, especially when it comes to a loved one, but not when that jealousy over takes your life and you begin to control their life. There is also fear, fear of failure is not a good emotion because that hinders you from success, but having the fear of God and your parents, is a healthy fear of wanting to honor them. Emotions, are a tricky subject, especially coming from a girl 😉 because I have always been judged based on my emotional response. If you think about it, it is just an avenue to get to know the person better and to learn about what makes them tick. I don’t see emotions as a bad thing, but I do believe that having emotional freedom and positive emotional health, is when you are able to feel emotions, but those emotions no longer control you.
- Having freedom in the area of my physical health, means that my body does not limit what I am capable of. My faith tells me that is body is a temporary living space but it is also the temple of the Holy spirit. But physical health for me, goes beyond that – even though I don’t know how much further beyond that I can go. I love to dance, and at one time, my body would not allow me to dance because I could not breathe, and I was 100lbs over weight. Every area of my life was off kilter. Being able to do the things I love, being there for my family, and having the energy to get what needed to get done – done! I never forget the first day I went from dusk to dawn. The freedom, and pure satisfaction I felt was unbelievable. I not only was able to get work done but I was also able to help and be there for my family. THIS…This is the true definition of health freedom! My body no longer controlled what I could or could not do. I had the choice to say no to something, but I also had the choice to say yes to something!
- Financial freedom to me will be when I don’t HAVE to work another day in my life. Now, I know you are thinking; what you are crazy?! Yes, yea I am! But I know it is possible. Creating wealth for my me and my family is not about going on vacations and living the life of luxgery, but rather having enough money to live the life I dreamed about and being able to volunteer my time to help those I love. There is no better feeling for me then being there for those I love. It took me a long time to accept that. If you did not have to worry about money how would you spend it? Maybe traveling and having fun, maybe its helping people, maybe is overcoming a challenge of some kind, maybe it is reading and annualizing stats all day. Regardless, it is not for our own satisfaction, but rather for the satisfaction of giving back to those around us!
- Our mental well being includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Freedom in our mental health may look like being able to hang around all social classes, or being able to balance both the emotional reasoning and the intellectual reasoning.
The rest of our life is made up of marriage or relationship with our life partner, children or the one’s we mentor and coach, extended family, work or the way we provide, fun & adventure, and charity. All these things are dependent on our status of our own personal health and wellbeing. We can’t have a healthy marriage, if our health in anyway is not performing up to par.
All of this is with the goal of leaving a lasting legacy, not just for this generation, but for generations to come. The legacy is not about us, not about what we did, but about how love is universal and can touch generations to come. Legacy for me is the practical application to a principal that is far more intangible then we can imagine. We all leave a legacy, some will quickly be forgotten, while others will be speaking for decades.
2. Liberty
When I think of liberty, I think of the fact that we are called to stand out. We are called to live life differently. Because of where we live, we have the choice to go with the crowd and believe we need to be in debt to “live”, we have to go to the doctor at every little symptom, or that in order to be cool, we have to keep up with the latest trends. Or we have the choice, to “take the road less traveled” and live life on our own terms.
3. Pursuit of Happiness
What does happiness mean to you? What is it that truly sets your soul on fire – burning with passion? What areas can you improve upon to get to that point of true happiness?
One thing I always remember – is happiness is fleeting. Meaning, surface happiness only last for so long.
Remember, it is a journey to reach true happiness. Remember, to walk in the freedom you have been given! True happiness comes with sacrifice, sacrificing the pleasures in life for what truly give our life meaning and sets our soul on fire. In this season in my life, my physical health has been my primary source of where I have sought happiness. It takes the whole picture though. My next area of focus is to be financially free, which is going to take a lot of sacrifice, just like it did for my health.
For me, I have not reached my full potential yet, but I will stop at nothing, until me and my family have reached life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! Will you join me?
