Freedom and Fatherhood

Yesterday many Americans gathered in backyards, at public pools, on balconies, in kitchens and parks to celebrate dads. It was not lost on many of us, Father's Day coincided with Juneteenth, a celebration of slaves freed in the last of the rebel states in 1865. 

Freedom and fatherhood. Having grown up in the 60s and 70s, when a good whopping with the belt was a thing, it's hard for me to reconcile freedom with the role my father often assumed in our household. Dad was the disciplinarian. He spanked, he grounded, he removed toys (often by tossing them down the basement steps); his presence was most often synonymous with the restriction of freedom. To hear my mother announce, "You're father will be home any minute," meant the time for testing boundaries was over; it was time to clean up and shape up.

Like many folks, I grew up thinking God, our Heavenly Father, was no different. To enter His house was to be in your Sunday best, on your best behavior; He would settle for nothing less. Sunday school teachers reminded unruly students that God was watching them. Kicking your feet against the pew was grounds for a good slap. And NEVER, EVER were we to write in our Bibles, God's holy book. I feared God, and not necessarily the way we're supposed to. I was certain God would send me to Hell for my terrible behavior: I lied, I hit my brother --and then there were the things I was supposed to do that I didn't: obey my parents, read my Bible, pray. If I didn't soon stop being me, I was doomed.

In Galatians 5:1 (New American Standard Version), Paul says:

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Paul's not being redundant here, what he's saying is, Christ liberated us from the law of sin and death so that we might freely enjoy the eternal life He gave us. Yes, we need to read the Bible, not because being a Christian requires it, but because any relationship --especially one with a Spirit so wondrous and complex as our Heavenly Father-- flourishes when the participants really desire to know and please the other. Yes, we need to obey Him and listen for His voice, but not because He will send us to Hell if we don't, but because our Heavenly Father truly does know best. Yes, our lives, our desires, even our character will be transformed, not because we've learned to be less "ourselves", but because the Holy Spirit is at work in us, making us new creatures, more like God's perfect design for us. The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus allows us to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, a relationship that frees us from the sentence of death imposed on us at birth, a relationship that frees us from a life of sin by the ongoing sanctification of the Holy Spirit within us, a relationship that frees us to serve our Creator because we want to express our love to Him.

Freedom and fatherhood have always been inextricably linked. What a beautiful thing that our nation's leaders officially recognized that 😉