Freedom by Charmaine Beetge

“I have always seen myself as a free spirit. I
nominated myself a gypsy,
because I love the sense of freedom they portray. I
love the way they live,
moving around from place to place, the way they
dress, their music, and
everything else about them. I started changing my
life at a young age to be
part of their culture. I thought by doing what they
do, and live the way
they live, I would have freedom, and I would be set
free from that feeling
- being stuck. Unfortunately, I had the wrong
definition of what true
freedom means, that is why my relationships never
worked out, I jumped from
one job to the next, went into addiction and so the
list goes on and on.” I
have been on a lifelong journey, where the quest
for freedom has been such
a burning fire within me that it has taken me many
places in my life, only
to NOW find the answer, and realising how simple
it actually is!”
Our need for freedom is such an intense drive that
once we set sights on
something which we believe will achieve it, we will
move toward it
magnetically.
If we have a bad and inaccurate definition of
freedom that cannot produce
freedom, we will always feel stuck in life.
The importance of a clear and accurate definition of
freedom is that the
rest of the journey depends on starting at the right
place and aiming at
the right target. Many counterfeits exist that look a
lot like freedom at
the outset, but the outcome of pursuing these
“decoys” is further “
stuck-ness” – because they each constitute bad
definition.
Here are some examples of these counterfeits to
freedom-
Counterfeit 1 – when people define freedom as the
absence of boundaries
- it is like an animal with no fences. It works like
this - we want to do
something, but don’t have enough money…our boss
wont let us off work….our
spouse resents some desire we have that is part of
our true nature…the
child who believes his parents is holding him back,
fights against them in
a number of ways. The variety of fences is endless.
Because boundaries are
frustrating, we believe that the boundaries are the
cause of the
stuck-ness.  The trap occurs when we believe that
removing these obstacles
will make us free, because then our freedom
depends on someone else. We
have granted them control over us. It is the belief
itself that has us
stuck, not the boundary.
Counterfeit 2 – freedom is the absence of frustrating
habits
The second counterfeit focuses on treating the
symptoms instead of the root
cause- “I drink too much, therefore if I stop
drinking, I will be free…If I
stop screaming, stop cutting myself, stop whatever
compulsive behaviour
seems to be the source of frustration for me and my
loved ones, then only
then will I finally be free”. We assume that when
we are free from
drinking, drugging, yelling, pornography, etc., then
we will be free.
Counterfeit 3 – freedom will come when my
circumstances or relationships
change – It is the belief that we will be free when
we get out of the
circumstances or relationships that seem to bind us.
Our growing
dissatisfaction is often taken out on the nearest
meaningful relationship.
We think, “Surely this situation or these people are
keeping me stuck.”
SO WHAT IS FREEDOM THEN?- To be free is to be
able to act and react fully
out of who you were designed and created to be,
regardless of the
circumstances of your life, or the behaviour of the
people around you.
Lasting freedom is rooted in who we are, not what
we are doing. Outward
circumstances have little, or nothing to do with true
freedom.  Freedom
comes from a recreated heart, not from finally
discovering the right
strategy!