We arrived at Prishtina airport at around noon. The weather was surprisingly similar to that
of Southern Ontario. As I stepped off of the plane I got my first
glimpse of Kosovo, rolling hills that surrounded the airport. In the distance I saw the edges of Prishtina,
the capital city. The houses were orange
and white, the colour of baked clay shingles and plaster. Prishtina was the city I was to spend the
next few weeks in. It was a completely
new experience for me since I have never traveled to Europe
before as an adult. As we drove, cars
whizzed by us in the slow lane. The
roads were packed with cars ranging from jury-rigged DIY vehicles to BMWs and
Mercedes.
During our first day in the country, we were just trying to
stay awake in order to sleep off the jet lag later that night. Just before dinner, we decided to take a
stroll around the city center. We had to
learn traffic etiquette very quickly.
Cars don’t normally stop if you just wait at a crosswalk. You have to begin to walk across for cars to
stop for you, which they do (usually)!
We walked around for a bit, enjoying the new culture and
scenery. The sun was just beginning to
set as we arrived at a strip plaza with an interesting monument standing in
front of it. There before me was the word
NEWBORN, constructed from pieces of sheet metal that had been welded
together. At 3 meters high and 20 meters
wide, this typographic piece of art was a very strong expression of how the
nation felt when it finally achieved its independence. It was a symbol of their freedom and
liberation. It described their birth as
a new country and a renewed people. I
stood in wonder at this monument wondering how I could convey the feelings I
had within me.
~~~~~
The idea of freedom is one that is confused and muddled here
in the west, as it probably is elsewhere in the world as well. What is freedom for one person can be the
opposite for another, yet all we seem to talk about here in the west is
individual freedom, rights and liberties.
In North America, freedom is often
thought of as the ability to choose for oneself, to be expressive or outspoken,
or to have political rights. But is that
was freedom really is?
If freedom is the ability choose, then won’t having the most
choices we can have to choose from in any given situation make us more
satisfied and happier? Barry Schwartz, a
psychologist, presented evidence of the opposite. He notes that a particular dogma is frequently found in
western industrial societies which states, “To maximize the welfare of our
citizens, we must maximize their individual freedom.” Freedom in this sense is the ability to take
control of our own welfare by acting on our own, thus to maximize the freedom to
act on our own we must maximize our choices.
He then shows how at a certain point this freedom of choice
becomes paradoxical.
Imagine walking into a chocolate store and marveling at
their wall of chocolate bars. Each one
is different, some look appealing and others not so much. You have not tried any of these varieties
before, so you are eager to taste them.
After narrowing down your selection to a handful of choices, you realize
that you only have enough money for one.
You must take your pick of the best of the best of the best of the
selection of choices. It is hard to make
up your mind because you are considering what each experience will be like and
you want to have the best. Finally, you
make your decision and make your purchase.
What Schwartz found was that people will tend to contemplate a reality
in which they chose one of the other options.
By the time they finished eating the chocolate bar that they had purchased, they
felt less satisfied with their purchase because they (in some fashion) were
aware of the many other realities in which they were more satisfied with the other products than they
were satisfied with their choice in the present reality. The more
choices there were, the more realities there were to cause regret. So if this is true then does maximized choice
really create maximized freedom, or does it make us a slave to
our desire for ultimate satisfaction? In
this sense, can we define freedom as merely our unlimited ability to choose?
Freedom of speech is an popular topic of many media sources
these days. Anything from Westboro Church’s protests to the occupy
movement, people are eager to express their opinions because they believe it is
their right to be able to express them.
Of course, legally in North America, it
is…but it is here where we run into problems because some of what people say
can take other people’s freedom away. A
prime example is the aforementioned Westboro
“Church” of Topeka
Kansas. This is a group of people who protest
people’s funerals with such statements of hatred and offence, that it cannot be
ignored. The family of a deceased
soldier have the right to be free to bury their loved one in peace and respect,
yet the people of Westboro deny them of this freedom by shouting out things
like “God hates American soldiers.” This
freedom of speech then serves to oppress.
This is not to say that we should not have the freedom to speak our opinions. The occupy movement was recognized as at movement for social justice for those affected by the increasingly capitalist economy in America. In this case, a person's suffering is expressed in a desire to be free to work. It is when our speech becomes rotten and oppressive in nature towards
others that freedom of speech just becomes another weapon to wound and enslave. And the idea that freedom can be used to
enslave is also paradoxical if not outright contradictory.
But what about political rights? Democracy is the best, right? We have seen the news headlines of America helping other nations like Iraq, Egypt,
Libya
and even Kosovo achieve “true” democracy.
People seem to think that all humans should have the right to vote. Obviously this is true in democratic
countries, but is democracy freedom?
Sure it puts power into the hands of the majority, but what about the
minority? How can the majority explain
freedom to the minority? Is it just
about the greater good in an individualistic culture? Try to explain the greater good to an unborn
human baby that has had its life ended, its body removed from its mother and discarded like a piece of
rotten meat…all decidedly ethical by people who have reduced human life down to
mere biological processes and stages of cell division. Does freedom oppress and destroy life for the mere
satisfaction of others?
If these things are not what true freedom is, then what is true
freedom?
In the western worldview, we are all individuals competing
for success, recognition and reward. The
corporate ladder is made to climb. Our
opinions are made to be heard. Our
choices are our own to make. Is this
really the best paradigm for living a fulfilling life?
Will we always be stepping on other people’s toes to catch a glimpse of
the freedom that we long for, but will never see?
What if freedom was something else entirely?
Let me tell a story about a people. This people became separated from their Creator,
the One who gave them complete freedom.
This people were given chance after chance to become reconciled once again with
their Creator, but they failed repeatedly. They were instead enslaved by their religious
laws, their selfishness, and eventually by other nations. They yearned for release! To be freed from oppression and slavery! Even more so, they sought freedom from the
fallen state of the world, from humanity.
They looked forward to the promised day when their Creator would renew
them as a nation, to free them from their slavery and cure them of their brokenness. They sought to be resurrected and reborn free
from their separation from their Creator.
This is the story of Israel and Yahweh, the God of
Abraham.
Freedom, then, is not about being able to do more and say
more. It is not about being able to vote
against “liberals” or “conservatives”.
It is not about experiencing the most that we can in life. It is not about maximized choices.
Freedom, instead, is about becoming who we were created to
be. It is accepting our true selves, the
people we would have been had we not become separated from the One that created us
to be free. In accepting freedom from
the One who created the desire in us, we are then free to forgive.
We are freed from bitterness and hate. We are freed from self-loathing. We are freed from “seeking our self-worth
from the opinions of other people”. We
are freed from the standards we have for ourselves which we constantly fail to
meet.
"We are free to love.
We are free to be loved”…
~~~~~
Israel
looked forward to a day when the imperfect would fade and the perfect would be made fully known. The day when all wrongs and rights would be
judged by the supreme Judge. The day when
all that is wrong in the world is made right.
When nations will have no reason for borders. When wars and speeches of hate are silenced and peace flows through our
hearts. When love overcomes all and our
satisfaction is found in the very One that made us who we are. The One who understands us more than we
understand ourselves.
In that time, we will be reborn. We will be liberated from the oppression of
sin and brokenness. We will be
NEWBORN…
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