Years ago on January 4th, I flew home from New Orleans reeling. I’d gone there to spend New Year’s Eve with man I thought I’d marry. Instead of landing with a ring on my finger, I got off the plane numb with a broken heart. The decision was mine, so I had no one to blame but myself, which made it worse. But that’s another story for another time.
On January 11, Janis Joplin released “Me and Bobby McGhee,” the powerful, raw song of her lost love. Hearing "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," sliced me in half. It suggested that freedom comes from having nothing to risk or protect, implying a sense of liberation through detachment and a willingness to face severe consequences, even loss and grief. Well, I was free. But I hardly felt liberated from my situation. My freedom felt more like being caught between a rock and a hard place.
For 4 ½ minutes on the original cut Janis wails about the agony and pain of loss stemming from gaining freedom through letting Bobby “slip away.” Christians are taught that freedom is a gift of God’s grace, also gained through letting go. Are these two meanings of freedom polar opposites, or do they shake hands somewhere along the way?
Actually, they have a great deal in common if we look at what’s been written about the line in the song and compare it to what we read in the New Testament.
The words in the song imply that when a person loses what was dear to them—material possessions, social standing, or close relationships, they are free to act without restraint. What is left to interpretation, however, is that these losses can be positive or negative. Letting go truly can liberate. Yet, the freedom Janis reveals in the way she sings the words is undergirded with the angst and crushing pain that also can also be the consequence of gaining freedom.
We see a more heartbreaking example in William Styron’s book and movie script, Sophie’s Choice. To gain freedom for herself and one of her children, Sophie must allow the Nazis send her other child to the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Freedom? It depends on how you look at it, but there was an excruciating choice involved. Should she let one child go to give another child and his mother their freedom, or does she doom all three to the gas chambers? Where’s the freedom in that.
In each example above, the choice for freedom came with a heavy price.
Freedom in God also involves choosing to let go in order to gain freedom—or not. We’re free to hold onto our ego-driven selves, past hurts that we can’t (don’t want to) forgive (caused by us and others), deep-seated grudges, and hate. In this, we choose to become slaves to our own devices. For this, we suffer as did the women in the examples above. Or we can look to Christ as our model for freedom. The difference between God’s choices and those in the previous examples is that a choice in favor of God’s freedom over our own selfish ways never leaves us bereft. Instead, being rooted in God’s love for us and given freely in grace, there are no negative backsides or strings attached to choosing God. God’s freedom truly is free.
In Galatians 5:13-14, Paul discusses freedom in Christ and how this freedom relates to living a life in Christ—that when we let go of ourselves in favor of loving our neighbors as ourselves, we become free to serve one another as did Christ. In this, we “put on” Christ.
As we turn our attention to the idea of freedom this July 4th, let’s not think of it only as it pertains to our nation, with all its ramifications of choice, emotions, pain, and questions that comes with it. Let’s also examine what freedom means to our life in God and the life God had in mind for us.
Blessings,
Karen
