You're Free!

'I just heard the inmates knocking on the walls and the cell and said "Bill, you're free Bill! You're free, Bill",' Cosby said, according to Wyatt. 'I didn't know what was going on.'

I'm not sure how you feel about Bill Cosby's recent release from prison, but when I saw the video of his publicist relating how the police came knocking on Cosby's cell door, I couldn't help but feel a bit of the excitement myself. What would it feel like to be in prison, going to bed, thinking tomorrow was going to be the same routine as every day before, and awakening to the sounds of people knocking on your cell, shouting that you're free? Crazy, right? He had to be a bit dazed. Did he think he was dreaming? Did he roll the word around in his mind a couple times? Free. I'm free. Me? Free? It must have sounded wonderful to him.

To those who have testified to being victims and their families, however, free probably didn't sound so good. Free may have sounded painful, heartbreaking, infuriating, or a bit like betrayal. Free may have sounded like being victimized all over again. But I'm really not interested in weighing in on the case at all. My interest is in the word "free" and how it can sound so different to different people. 

For instance, "free will." Have you ever heard that term as it applies to the gospel? We have the will to choose whether we will love and serve God or not. I woke up this morning very grateful for the opportunity to love God and express that love toward Him. Loving someone is a privilege. Have you ever seen those sitcoms where a girl is crushing on some boy at school? "He doesn't even know you're alive," a friend says. "But I love him!" the other weeps. The plot will usually reveal it's a fleeting fancy; but the point is, he has not allowed her into his life. She cannot actively love him or lavish on him expressions of her affection without him allowing it. God allows us to choose to love Him and adore Him. He is the Creator of everything, the God of the Universe, and He cares what we think and feel about Him. He cares that we are able to express our love toward Him. What a privilege!

Then there's the free will of others which may not seem so great. For anyone who knows someone in self-destruct mode, the last thing you want is for them to be able to choose to self-destruct over and over, day after day. Whether it's addiction or idolatry or arrogance-- whatever it is that has them on the fast track to rejecting Jesus and choosing eternal death --you want it stopped! You might even want them locked up or laid up, unable to escape God's demands on their undivided attention. If they're your adult children, you might have had visions of putting them over your knee and spanking some sense back into them. "Free will is awful!" you might say to yourself; and although You know He doesn't work this way, "God, why can't You just zap them into surrendering their lives to You?" 

Praise God for His blessed assurance! We can know that if our loved ones are called by the Lord to adoption, He will see His work to fruition. Rest in His promises and pray without ceasing. By God's grace, our faithful petitions will be granted and those we have lifted to the Lord will one day know the joy of answering His call, of falling in love with Him of their own free will.