Watching television coverage of the thousands of people leaving Eastern Europe, as well as those who have remained in order to work for greater liberty at home, has been a moving experience. It has also got me to thinking about freedom —both the rights and the responsibilities that come with it.

Although the country where I live guarantees certain rights to me, even here sometimes things happen that make freedom seem fragile. Here's a small example.

It was three o'clock in the morning. The telephone had just rung, and on the other end was a man who identified himself as a sergeant in the police department of a neighboring town. He told my roommate, who had answered the phone, that the driver of my car (presumably me) and some companions had been reported as leaving a local restaurant without paying the bill. He indicated that if we did not pay the bill, formal charges could be filed against us. Since I had not spoken to him directly, when my roommate woke me to tell me of this call, I was upset and frightened.

Barely awake, I knew it couldn't have been me! But how to prove it? Legally, I knew that I had a right to be presumed innocent. As far as I could tell, however, I had no way to prove that I could not have been at the restaurant.

Odd, isn't it, how a small incident could make me think more about something many take for granted, like freedom? Looking back, in the light of proven innocence, it seems so obvious that people would have believed me. But at the time it wasn't. I recall thinking that I really had to pray because I knew prayer would help me to stop being scared and to know what to do.

This decision grew out of years of relying on prayer for help in all kinds of difficulties—in sickness, in problems at work or church, with family or friends. To me, prayer means affirming my relationship to God, specifically my spiritual nature as His child, always in His care. From my study of Christian Science I have come to understand God as all-knowing Mind. It has also taught me that as God's child, I can never be separated from Him, that I can always turn to Him for help. This spiritual fact isn't true just for me; it is also true for you and for all.

As I prayed about the situation, I got the idea to call our town's police department and explain the facts. They got in touch with the policeman who had called me. In the meantime the guilty party had been apprehended. It turned out that our cars were alike in every respect but one: the last digit on the license plate was different.

This small experience reminded me that although some countries provide for individual liberties, freedom is actually rooted in something much more fundamental than a human system of government. Freedom is a quality that we express as God's children; it is an inherent element of our true nature. So it isn't anything that we actually can lose, even though circumstances—such as the ones I faced—may imply otherwise.

Freedom, then, comes from within instead of being subject to circumstances outside us. It is a product of our relationship to God, which frees us from the belief that we are mortals, separated from God and enslaved by fear, confusion, sickness, or other forms of materiality. Through prayer we learn that man is completely spiritual, sinless, and perfect. Since God is our Father and is ever present, we can never be deprived of His love. This love frees us because it reveals to us the Christ, the saving Truth taught and lived by Jesus. It also strengthens us to follow in his footsteps, to see our lives more in terms of a growing sense of our true spirituality than in terms of material conditions.

The spiritual foundation of freedom is well illustrated in the experience of the children of Israel. You may already know the story, how the Israelites were slaves to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and how Moses—with God's guidance—led them out of captivity.

What has struck me in the Bible's account of their journey is how much they thought like slaves even after they had left Egypt. Just as a slave is dependent on his master and doesn't take responsibility, the Israelites seemed to feel that they could go on living and thinking pretty much as they pleased and expect God to take care of them.

This point illustrates an important fact about freedom. No matter how much liberty we may have politically or legally, if we are slaves to materiality—either fearing it or embracing it—we are not actually living as the sons and daughters of God. And thus we are not fully free.

Christ Jesus' teachings make this point very clearly. He said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." ^{John 8:32.} This truth presents the fact of our total spirituality. And the freedom we gain from living as God's spiritual children doesn't just free us from oppressive political conditions. It works as a mental and physical revolution within our very beings.

I know this to be true because my whole life changed after I began to study Christian Science. From depression it lifted me to hope and then beyond that to a recognition that I really could be a better person. The struggle against fear, sorrow, sin, whatever, wasn't hopeless anymore.

From this sense of God's love and a fuller understanding of His law, I began to feel truly free. I learned that freedom was much more the result of how I was thinking about my life than how outward conditions were affecting me. It became clear that freedom wasn't just a political right—it went much deeper than that. Nor was changing my thinking about freedom merely trying to think happier thoughts.

Instead, true liberty comes as we understand that our spirituality frees us from the attractions and challenges of sensualism and materiality. We learn that we are always in God's care and that God, who is infinite Love, is always speaking to us through His Christ. Such freedom touches every aspect of our lives.

This occurs because we are gradually giving up the belief that material conditions control us. We are starting to see that the spiritual governs our lives and will bring healing to them. It also broadens our perspective to see the efforts of others—such as those in Eastern Europe—in a new light.

We see then that gaining political freedom is something on which to build, not a point at which to stop. Each of us can learn more about the spiritual freedom that is ours through our oneness with God. Understanding this unity of God and man enables us to live more and more as God's expression—to love one another as children of Love, to embrace God's law as offspring of Principle, to be free of materiality's fears and suffering because we are children of Spirit.

Our efforts to express spirituality include prayer to understand better how we can help the world's progress toward freedom. For some of us, it may involve simply expressing more freedom ourselves—whether this comes in connection with entangling relationships or physical challenges. For others, such prayer may lead into active work with organizations or agencies devoted to promoting greater freedom in our world.

Whatever direction our lives take, our spiritual progress toward liberty is beautifully illustrated by this statement of Mrs. Eddy's in Science and Health: "As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear,—as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised joy,—so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God." ^{Science and Health, p. 566.}

The spiritual idea that is our guide is the Christ. Through Christ, the true idea of God, we see that no one is meant to live in slavery, no one can ultimately be denied freedom. As the world progresses toward greater spirituality, it will become natural for its inhabitants to experience more freedom.

And this freedom will come not just in terms of governments and nations but in our individual lives. Freedom from sickness and sin are inherent in an understanding of our spirituality as the sons and daughters of a totally good God. Through Christ we will know the love of God and see it bring restoration and wholeness to each aspect of our lives.