This oversimplifies, however. Freedom cannot be defined in strictly negative terms, as the absence of confinement and constraint. In fact, in many cases, confinement and constraint is actually a means to liberation.

If you have musical aptitude, you may give yourself to practice, practice, practice the piano for years. This is a restriction, a limit on your freedom. There are many other things you won’t be able to do with the time you invest in practicing. If you have the talent, however, the discipline and limitation will unleash your ability that would otherwise go untapped. What have you done? You’ve deliberately lost your freedom to engage in somethings in order to release yourself to a richer kind of freedom to accomplish other things.

This does not mean that restriction, discipline, and constraint are intrisically, automatically liberating. For example, a five-foot-four, 125-pound young adult male should not set his heart on becoming an NFL lineman. All the discipline and effort in the world will only frustrate and crush him (literally). He is banging his head against a physical reality–he simply does not have the potential. In our society many people have worked extremely hard to pursue careers that pay well rather than fit their talents and interests. Such careers are straitjackets that in the long run stifle and dehumanize us.

Disciplines and constraints, then, liberate us only when they fit with the reality of our nature and capacities. A fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if it is restricted and limited to water. If we put it out on the grass, its freedom to move and even live is not enhanced, but destroyed. The fish dies if we do not honor the reality of its nature.

In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment. Experimentation, risk, and making mistakes bring growth only if, over time, they show us our limits as well as our abilities. If we only grow intellectually, vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints–why would it not also be true for spiritual and moral growth? Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn’t we be seeking to discover it and disciplining ourselves to live according to it?

The popular concept–that we should each determine our own morality–is based on the belief that the spiritual realm is nothing at all like the rest of the world. Does anyone really believe that? For many years after each of the morning and evening Sunday services I remained in the auditorium for another hour to field questions. Hundreds of people stayed for the give-and-take discussions. One of the most frequent statements I heard was that “Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself.” I always responded to the speakers by asking, “Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behavior?” They would invariable say, “Yes, of course.” Then I would ask, “Doesn’t that mean that you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is ‘there’ that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or thinks?” Almost always, the response to that question was silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one.”

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- The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Timothy Keller. This quote is found in the chapter “Christianity Is a Straitjacket,” where Keller goes more in depth on this issue. More resources for this book available at www.TheReasonForGod.com

Read the rest of the book to hear Keller’s additional responses to the following commonly-held reservations people have against Biblical Christianity:

1. There can’t be just one religion.
2. How dould a good God allow suffering?
3. The church is responsible for so much injustice.
4. How can a loving God send people to hell?
5. You can’t take the Bible literally.

…along with serious reasons in favor of faith in God.

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It was from one of the program’s biggest fans that I was convicted. It’s simple and here’s why. She casually mentioned that she goes through the material that’s provided in the binder for 30 minutes every day.  …Okay let me just stop for a second… does the word “devotion” or “discipline” come to mind? Ouch, I just got punched again.

Thirty minutes a day. What an accurate example of someone really going for it amidst the hectic schedule that I know she has. Do you see where I’m going with this? How about bringing in a quote that sums it up? This wasn’t my main point, but you get the picture from two guys I look up to:

“G. K. Chesterton correctly remarked that the problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting but that it has been found difficult and left untried. In response to an article in The Times of London entitled ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’ Chesterton replied, ‘I am. Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton.’ That is precisely Jesus’ point – we are wrong with the world.” – Ravi Zacharias

Can I tie in something I heard during my time at The Master’s College? I only vaguely remember this, and it might’ve been a guest speaker, but it was an interpretation of Luke 16:1-15, also known as The Parable of the Shrewd Manager, or Unjust Servant, that stuck with me. In this parable that Jesus tells, he congratulates a manager for what seems like deceiving the boss whose money he was put in charge of, but the key is the second part of Luke 16:8, that “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”  So this shrewd manager actually took action in light of something he heard (read the chapter), used his resources wisely, and Jesus held him up as an example.

To bring in just one more point, I think it’s sad but true that a lot of Christians define the health of their faith by the things they’re choosing not to do or participate in: think getting drunk, sex in the wrong context, drugs, even dirty language. But if that’s what we’re using as the measuring stick, something is not right. That leads into the concept behind Francis Schaeffer’s short but powerful little book called “The Mark of the Christian,” which I wrote about in another post. The connection I’m trying to make between this sincere woman applying the leadership training program everyday in her life, and my own convictions about my shortcomings (they never cease to amaze me), is that there is so much more living out to do. Who do I think I am, that I could skip out on the hard work of devotion and consistent discipline it takes to live the things Christianity is all about?