Born to be Free

A steadily increasing amount of people I meet believe imagination and fairy tales to be just a "cute phase" of one's early childhood.  Things to pack up in unlabeled boxes and store on a closet shelf. Many who would identify as evangelicals define these beloved stories and far away places our minds wander with them as a distraction, an escape.  As unnecessary junk accumulating space in our heads where other things - facts, formalities and the "real world" should instead reside. But the world and the people therein are not simply what we perceive by way of our senses.  Many would like us to believe matter is all that truly exists - that there is no great magic - no direction, value or significance to our lives, or any life.  We're just a bunch of particles after all.  Or are we? Are our lives defined by the sort of order science provides for us?  Have we taken earthly tools and chosen to use them to interpret both the temporal and eternal? The world and the ...

Hey there!  For those of you who are new to this space, I thought I should introduce myself. My name is Amanda, and I've been writing here at Born to Be Free for over three years now! I studied Intercultural Ministry with Global Frontier Missions for two years, and now I continue my studies in various other subjects in addition. I serve at a camp in Missouri during the summer, read alot - from theology to juvenile fantasy to nonfiction on Cold War Spies, enjoy listening to many differing genres of music (but there's always a Billy Joel song for every mood), and I'm always super excited to talk about Bible Quizzing and Juvenile Justice Ministry. So yeah, that's a bit of who I am. :) I'd love to hear a bit about you!

Oftentimes I find the LORD speaks to me by bringing up certain symbols and/or phrases wherever I go.  In my conversations with people, the books I read, podcasts and songs I listen to, etc. One of the symbols He keeps bringing up is a suitcase - a rather obscure item to be sure. I've spent the past three weeks unpacking (no pun intended!) this word - what it could possibly mean. I just arrived back from spending time with a woman I consider my mentor in California.  Currently I have about two weeks left before I move home from a season of ministry spent in Missouri.  My suitcases have been packed and unpacked quite frequently as of late. I think we tend to believe that God will grant us crystal-clear direction in regards to what paths we should choose - and often He does. But lately I've discovered that sometimes He doesn't. Some days the Spirit will make things so abundantly clear that you have no doubt in your mind about which choice to make.  Then again...sometime...

The other day, my mom and I were discussing the past nine months of our lives. Long before the world was overcome by the current pandemic, there was already much heaviness in our hearts. By that point, we'd faced our grandparents' home burning down, losing loved ones and new chronic illness. By the time COVID-19 came around, we'd already been living with a fair share of uncertainty, anxiety and overwhelming loss. But I know we aren't the only ones. The past few months have affected every human being living in the world differently - but they haven't been the first "wilderness seasons" we've all had to walk through. We don't get to choose how or when pain will come to us.  We were never consulted on these issues. The difficulties presented by worldwide disease have for many become just another thing to pack in the suitcase of things we don't have the ability to process yet.  We carry them with us everywhere we go. When Jesus walked on this broke...

Six feet apart. No groups of more than ten, for safety's sake. Humankind retreats into the four corners they feel are more a house than a home. We, the beings with souls, are doing everything we can to protect and heal our bodies.....but our hearts? They're broke wide open, bleeding. We'd like to think we're capable of carrying on in a context of isolation, that we are self-dependent, that the world can fall apart around us and we'll be okay. But the lesson we'll be learning, the holy test we've just been handed has been taken from chapters we haven't bothered reading into as a society. Connection, and the great void we call loneliness. This isn't the first time human beings have known so great a separation. Way back in the beginning, we are told in Genesis 3 of how the first human beings were escorted out of the Garden - ushered out of direct contact with the God they had walked with each day. That's when they started to die...

God has a way of repeating some messages.  Maybe it's because we weren't listening the first time, or maybe He's wanting to prove a point. In Genesis 41, we read about Pharaoh's dream of the famine that would soon overtake Egypt.  A reoccurring dream.  "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God..." the text says.  Similarly, Jesus repeated lessons to his disciples - and phrases such as "Truly, truly I say to you..." to catch their attention. The other day, someone mentioned to me the importance of recognizing our humanity.  It is far too easy for me (and perhaps I am not the only one who's this way, but maybe I am) to try to shut out my emotions in the face of crisis or difficulty. There are some of us who believe, perhaps unconsciously, that allowing ourselves to be concerned, to mourn, to feel any sadness or uncertainty at all - is a lack of faith.  Something that shouldn't be.  A side effect of the...

Within my small, olive-green ESV Bible I keep a series of note cards.  I have a number of sloppily jotted thoughts, and lots of quotes from my pastor written on them. Some catch my eye more than others at times.  This past Sunday my mind lingered on a few written points for a while longer. "What if following Jesus means giving up on your greatest dreams?" That's not a comforting thought.  Not something you wish to lie awake at night dwelling on. What are our greatest dreams?  Maybe if you're like me, you've got a few of them.  They are in essence, hopes.  Vague notions of a plan we wish to someday implement.  The reasons we work crazy hours and save every penny. But what if He asks us to give those things up?  Everything? What if for the student it means giving over their desires to work overseas and instead never moving out of their state?  What if for the middle-aged woman it means no longer having a chance to have her own fami...