Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should
I can tend to have moments of weakness where I get caught in the “Reel Trap”. It usually starts out innocently enough on Facebook seeing a reel that looks interesting, and 30 minutes later I realize that I’ve wasted 30 minutes of my life. It happens to the best of us.
The other day, I was caught in the trap and came across a video of a man jumping a bicycle. These usually end either in something really cool or in complete disaster. This particular video was from his helmet cam, so it was just like I was along for the ride. He’s quickly approaching a patch of earth that ramps up, and he launches over. Unfortunately for him, he overshoots the landing and comes crashing down to earth. The video ended with him moaning and groaning likely with a tinge of regret.
This series of events got me thinking about freedom and how we’re truly free in Christ. We’re no longer slaves to sin or bound by the cruelty of legalistic religious rules. We’re loved by the Father, and nothing that we can ever do will change that.
I can do whatever I want…but should I? The Apostle Paul, when talking to the Corinthian church, which was full of people exercising all kinds of things under the guise of freedom, said in 1 Corinthians 6:12, “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but I will not be mastered by anything.” In Romans 6:18 he says it like this, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
We can do anything, but not everything is beneficial. We have been set free to pursue righteousness. We are all going to go out and experience life. We are all going to go out and make mistakes. We are all going to unnecessarily complicate our lives with things we shouldn’t have done. But we’re free to not do those things.
What if we shifted the way we thought about freedom from “I’m free to do whatever I want” to “I’m free to pursue what’s right”? What if we shifted our thinking on freedom from selfish indulgence to investing in others? What if we realized we can do anything we want, but with help from the Holy Spirit we can want to use that freedom make the world around us better?
