Let Freedom Ring

Have you fallen down the rabbit hole of Europeans visiting America for the World Cup? If you haven't, I highly recommend it. It may be the most wholesome corner of the internet. Watching grown adults lose their minds over Texas Roadhouse, Costco, ranch dressing, free refills, and the fact that we can buy a sweatshirt and four new tires in the same building has been pure entertainment.

It feels like the timeout we all needed to look at each other as Americans and acknowledge that while we disagree on plenty...goodness, we have so much to be grateful for.

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays, so I'm more than a little pumped for this week. It combines some of my favorite things—time at the lake, a flexible schedule, gratitude, and kids squealing from being tossed on a tube. Not to mention fireworks on the water are simply next level. Also...I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I'm convinced Jesus is just a little closer by the water.

Two hundred fifty years of independence. Praise be.

The Freedom We Celebrate

Americans have never been particularly fond of someone telling us what to do. It's woven into our history. We celebrate freedom every year with backyard cookouts...and by launching controlled explosives into the sky. Nothing more American than that. We celebrate the men and women who sacrificed so we could live free.

But here's what's been rattling around in my head...

Christianity invites us into something that runs completely against our American instincts.

The core of our faith is that we were bought with a price. That we are not our own. Baptism represents dying to ourselves and being raised into a life surrendered to Jesus. Believing that His ways are so much better than ours, even when we don't understand.

Difficult but beautiful. And so, so freeing.

When Faith Means Letting Go

I'll be honest. I threw a bit of a temper tantrum with Jesus this week.

There were a few little blips with my kids—things that didn't go the way I wanted for them. The way I thought would have been best. In His kindness, instead of giving me all the answers, He brought me back to a verse I circled in my Bible as a little girl and labeled life verse.

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." — Hebrews 11:1

Then He gently challenged me:

Do you still believe that? Do I believe He is trustworthy? Do I believe He loves my children even more than I do? Do I believe He's already present in the parts of their story I can't see?

If the answer is yes...then worry and anxiety simply don't deserve to strip away the freedom that comes from that.

I can pray. I can trust. And I can let go.

Because faith isn't pretending everything will happen the way I hope. It's believing the One holding tomorrow is trustworthy and good.

This Fourth of July, I'm grateful for the freedoms we celebrate as Americans. But even more so for the freedom Christ offers—the freedom to stop gripping so tightly, to trust the One who sees what I cannot, and to rest in hands far more capable than mine.

Let freedom ring. And even more importantly...let faith rise.