Several voices have been speaking to me this week!  (Maybe I shouldn't put it that way?) There was a very popular singing group in the 1960's called Up with People. Versions of that original group are still around. They sang a song called "Freedom Isn't Free" (by Paul Colwell, 1965). The lyrics of the chorus include these words: 

You've got to pay a price

            You've got to sacrifice for your liberty.

Another voice I'm hearing is from the Apostle Paul's New Testament letter to the Galatians (Galatians 5: 1). It says simply, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

Finally, I've been hearing the familiar spiritual that was such a part of the U.S. Civil Rights struggle in the 1960's, "We Shall Overcome." The words that have been speaking to me are these: "Deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall all be free some day."  The call to freedom is an inspiring one, yet somehow it seems we find ourselves making other choices.

The dream of freedom

Take wing and fly

To boldly go

But we don't go

We cling to familiar

Land-bound prisons

Freedom inspires with

Heroes who step

boldly into a stark sun

But we somehow

Choose to retreat

To the shadows

We mean to change

The world, but

push comes to shove

And we hold back

Fail to break through

And give in to inertia.

(©Jack Price, 2010)

Still the call to freedom sounds boldly in our hearts and echoes in our souls-- the way to life that is worth living.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price

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