Finding true freedom
As many countries open travel and business once again, some people are feeling liberated, while others are reluctant to emerge too quickly. But all of us can look beyond what is restricted or allowed and seek something more than just returning to bustling cafés and gridlocked traffic. True freedom is much greater.
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, goes to the heart of true freedom when she says, “God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 481 ). God’s being is freedom. God, Spirit, is the real source and essence of freedom—fearless and limitless Life. You and I are inseparable from God, and are inherently free because God, as Life, is so.
I’ve been a runner most of my life. I’ve also loved climbing mountains and flying down ski slopes at high speed. There’s definitely a sense of exhilaration that comes from pushing past physical limits. But we can never feel—or be—more free than when we become fully conscious for even a moment of divine Truth, God, as the whole of our life. This Truth destroys limits in thinking—or limiting beliefs about ourselves we’ve accepted as fact. These beliefs must change to allow healing to happen and to show us our innate spiritual freedom.
Freedom is native to all being. It isn’t something we obtain, but something we reflect and can freely admit today because we are each God’s divine likeness. This admission occurs naturally as we challenge human beliefs or materialistic concepts we’ve come to accept about our body as subject to illness, our identity as determined by human history, our relationships as defined by education, age, etc. “The beliefs of the human mind rob and enslave it . . .” Science and Health explains (p. 187 ). Accepting life as fundamentally mortal carries with it a persistent sense of being imprisoned, whereas spiritual thinking that begins with God, good, divine Life, always confers freedom. Healing is the result of flipping these beliefs on their head and seeing their falsity in the light of knowing we are subject only to God, infinite Truth, Life, and Love. Then, limits begin to disappear and are replaced by the beauty and divine goodness of God’s creation as the reality of being, and we experience increased freedom and healing.
God, Spirit, is the real source and essence of freedom—fearless and limitless Life.
Christ Jesus, the greatest example of someone living a life of true freedom, unfettered by the confines of matter, promised those who followed his teachings, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32, New King James Version). Jesus and others in the Bible illustrate how to live a life of freedom. More than a freedom from something, Jesus taught the freedom to do or be something by accepting our real nature as a child of God, inseparable from God. Freedom is living and acting from the basis of our innate, spiritual identity, which is God-given and can never be taken from us. Our life experiences may condition us to believe we are dependent on something or someone to bring freedom. But Jesus showed that God-given good is truly always at hand and can be seen and demonstrated through healing.
Even when someone didn’t appear to be free, Jesus showed them that freedom was their divine right (see John 5:2–9 ). One such man, who had been ill for 38 years and felt helpless, sat by the side of a special pool said to bring healing to the first one who touched it after an angel was believed to stir the water. He was waiting for someone to bring him his freedom by putting him into the water. He believed health and liberty were possible but rare, and dependent on unique circumstances, whereas Jesus showed him that freedom was right at hand, universally available.
Truth outweighs error every time. The more we understand and seek God, the more Truth dawns in consciousness and shows limitations to be false. No matter how commonly accepted or firmly ensconced they seem to be, mortal beliefs are only beliefs—they aren’t facts. The more we observe and pay attention to the thoughts that are guiding our actions, the more we can change them. The spiritual truth of what we are supersedes beliefs about what we are not. We are not our beliefs about ourselves—we are the clear-thinking, peaceful, compassionate, innovative, honest, pure expressions of the infinite being, God, and include freedom and boundless bliss. And so, we discover this as our beliefs change, and we find we can live as the full and complete expression of Spirit, God.
In this week’s issue, Barbara Vining’s article, “Live to love,” shows how Jesus lived his spiritual, eternal self—his identity as Christ or the Son of God. And Jesus taught that this eternal Life is our nature as well. It is our true self as God’s creation, always unconfined, whole, and perfect, and recognition of this removes errors in thinking. We then experience more of the consciousness and living that express infinite Spirit and Love.
Even if erroneous human beliefs appear to obscure Truth, we ultimately can’t help but live our true self, at one with God. Truth is consistent in showing us our own divine nature, and we can experience this freedom, now and always.
Larissa Snorek, Associate Editor
