Set Free

When February opened up last year we did not know what disruption would ensue. The pains of the pandemic were unknown to us. Though we were free in most ways, we began to feel bound to ourselves within practices of protection against exposure to the virus. Those choices and precautions are ongoing since we still have health considerations in mind. We are trying to be as wise as we can be because this year we strive to get back to live worship as fully and as soon as we can.

The experience of freedom is known in terms of external conditions and also in terms of our thinking. If I am incarcerated in a twelve by twelve-foot cell and subject to the rules of my captors, I am hardly free. Still, a prisoner can have elements of thought and being that produce feelings of freedom. On the other hand, a person might have complete external freedom and feel cuffed and shackled emotionally and psychologically. The best human experience is to have conditions of freedom metaphorically and literally.

I had a neighbor in Palestine, Texas that had grown perpetually anxious. She felt she was hearing knocks on the outside wall of her house. She feared it was a menacing presence that posed danger. She did not feel free to go out or even to relax indoors. The police often came by when she called. Though they did not think there was a danger that never freed her from her fear. She was not restricted, but she felt trapped. Even if and or I am free of delusion, we sometimes feel hemmed in by worry.

Several scriptures are coming up for us on Sunday that have “release and freedom and” as the theme. Through the week, we will delve into several of the texts. For today, let’s examine a few verses from Isaiah.

He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.  —Isaiah 40:29-31

Many from among the people of Judah had been exiled to Babylon. The prophet records the spark of hope as they begin to imagine the end of their captivity and the beginning of their return to Zion. Even the young and strong can feel helplessness and fatigue in dehumanizing conditions with no freedom. The promise is that all shall be able to make the long trek along the wilderness road when their Deliverer gives them the strength. They shall grow new pinions as eagles do, and with these wings, they will fly free and make their way home.

God means for us to experience an abundant life of liberty. We look to the Holy One, our Liberator, who can break the bonds that hold us back, renew our strength, and get us moving into our adventure in faith. Even with the energy-sapping conditions, we have had to move through for so many months. God provides us the possibility of being done with weariness and exhaustion, supplying power and renewal in its place.