The Hero of the Story
I am not free to do what I want, I am not free.” This argument, however, is philosophically flawed and biblically inaccurate.6 I hope the following story from my family’s beach holiday illustrates a different way of understanding freedom. Several years ago my family went on vacation to the Oregon coast. We bought a kite that depicted the Peanuts character Snoopy and over five hundred feet of string. We attached the string and launched kite Snoopy. He shot up several hundred feet into the air and hovered over the ocean. While we were enjoying our achievement, we could hear a distant noise that sounded like a repeating thump or thud. As the noise got closer we realized it was a helicopter. We tried frantically to reel in kite Snoopy, but he was too far out. The helicopter buzzed through the kite string like a hot knife through butter. As we sadly watched the sky, we saw Snoopy, still far in the air, wafting downward toward the ocean waves. I remember thinking that if I were that kite, I would have relished the sense of freedom. But the freedom was short-lived; the kite soon hit the water and was destroyed. It is ironic that the kite was actually most free when tethered by the string to the one flying it. Cut off from the string, it could not do what it was designed to do. Similarly, we are not free when we are on our own, untethered from the one who created us and unable to do what he designed us to do. So-called religious behavior can give a false sense of security because it makes us feel like we are tethered to God, even though it does not guarantee that we are. If we are not truly tethered, we will waft our way to certain destruction. Jesus lived the wonderful balance of catching the wind of the Holy Spirit and enjoying the gusts and swirls of life while tethered to the person and character of his Father. Jesus obeyed where Adam (1 Cor. 15:21–22), Israel (Ezek. 20:12–13), and every person on earth has not obeyed (Rom. 3:10–12). The Father is exalted by our obedience, which means our obedience is an expression of worship. When our God is seen through our obedience to him, we 47