You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:18
While recovering from major surgery, my anesthesia brain felt a little too foggy to dive into a book. So I flipped through the TV channels. One station played an old Robert Redford and Jane Fonda movie, The Electric Horseman. If you have never seen it, Robert Redford plays a washed-up rodeo star named Sonny who now makes a living appearing at shows in a cowboy outfit that flashes and blinks with tiny lights. The sponsors want him to ride a well-known retired racehorse. The two celebrities are being used to advertise cereal instead of doing what they were “born to do” and once did. Sonny decides to set the multi-million-dollar animal free to roam with wild horses in a remote canyon. Jane Fonda, the reporter, records the whole thing and begins to grasp the notion that our basic need to be free is a wonderful thing. Okay – very 1970’s!
Running free to do what you want sounds like a great life for any creature, right?
Wrong. This horse was always pampered, brushed daily, fed, and sheltered. It was treated very well. It didn’t have to worry as long as it did what it was told.
Before you grimace and say, “how stifling”, think about it. Now in the wilderness, this animal was ill-equipped and vulnerable to germs, weather, predators, and other stronger horses. Survival chances? Not that great. I am not sure Sonny did him a huge favor after all.
The God message? “Freedom” is overrated. True freedom is not what the world would have us believe. If everyone “did their own thing” there would be chaos and no laws. Survival chances? Not that great.
We need boundaries to protect our freedoms. You’ve probably heard the old proverb, which stated that the obedient animal is free to roam inside the fence, but the defiant one is chained.
True freedom is granted when we choose to rely on God to care for us. He is a gentle, loving master who only has our best interests at heart. We are not required to do anything but respond in obedience. We can be free to move inside the fence of His ways. He guards the gate to make sure no danger enters the corral (John 10:9).
He feeds us, and we never hunger or thirst. We can head out to the pasture under his watchful eye and gallop, but it is also fenced for our protection.
People know to whom we belong. We wear his brand, called the cross, on our hearts. They can tell we have been disciplined and are not mustangs on the run.
If we don’t obey, and instead get a whiff of freedom in our nostrils, He might tug on our reins to steer us away from the open range for our own good. If we persist, He might allow us to jump the fence and race off on our own. But it doesn’t mean He stops keeping an eye on us.
And here is the marvelous thing. He is always waiting by the corral, beckoning us back to the barn. No whip on his belt. Only outstretched, nail-scarred hands standing by the open gate. He will tend to our wounds, comfort us, feed us, and shelter us in His warm mercy.
When it comes to the choice between God’s ranch and the open wilderness, wild horses couldn’t drag me away from the corral. How about you?
Jesus told His first-century listeners that He was the gate for the sheep. The people who heard His words understood the analogy. Shepherds would lead their sheep from pastures into a communal enclosed area at night. This was in order to watch over them and protect them from predators and poachers. The shepherds then laid down in the gap and guarded the entrance. Nothing came in or out without their permission.
Where Did You Find God Today? 