The flags and placards have been declaring freedom, exclaiming that this action is for the good of those who are being oppressed and infer in doing so that perhaps I am being oppressed. That seems to be the claim – a claim which comes with a cry of “enough is enough”.

The thing is, that I don’t think I’ve lost any freedom. I can go where I want (I’m vaccinated). I am not kept from entering premises (I’m vaccinated). I have not been able to travel (I’m vaccinated). I can say what I want and work as I’ve always done….cause, yes, I am vaccinated.

I had to be vaccinated to go to school as a kid. No one was on the sidelines as I walked through the doors of that public school concerned for my freedom. In fact, the very act of being able to attend a school, funded by the very government that some believe is inhibiting their freedom.

What I have come to understand in life is that what threatens our freedom is not the government, though in many lands that is true, but the real prison is the one we impose on ourselves. We do so by holding grudges, by permitting thoughts and emotions to rule us, by demanding our way despite the consequences.

The Bible declares that real freedom comes in submission to God. When we lose ourselves we gain the very freedom so many work to claim.

Jesus asked the question, what does it matter if you gain the whole world but lose your soul. What do you gain by demanding your way and losing yourself? What will you gain if you win your life on earth and lose your future in heaven?

Charles Wesley took that thought and expressed his own journey but declared that his chains, those things that held him in bondage, were released when he submitted himself to God.

Freedom is not found by turning the flag upside down and parking your big rig outside parliament. Freedom is not found in demanding your own way.

Freedom is found in giving yourself to God. Freedom is found in surrender.