TLDR

(too long, didn’t read)

• Exploring Personal Freedom: Reflecting on David Foster Wallace's insights, I ponder the origin of belief systems and their impact on personal freedom, suggesting that our minds can either liberate or confine us.

• Embracing Transformative Stories: Drawing from my spiritual and moral openness, I find resonance in the story of Jesus, particularly in narratives of redemption and transformation, such as those depicted in the series "The Chosen."

• Breaking Free from Self-Imposed Judgments: I highlight the damaging effects of internalizing societal judgments and narratives that deem us unworthy or irredeemable, urging readers to challenge these limiting beliefs.

• Choosing Action over Waiting: I advocate for proactive self-reflection and action, emphasizing the importance of aligning our actions with our desired identities and futures, rather than waiting for ideal circumstances to arise.

• Becoming Our Own Creators: Encouraging readers to shed the shackles of societal expectations, I invite them to embrace their potential for self-transformation and liberation, envisioning a world where individuals awaken to their own power to create change.

Give Me the Deets!

Give me the juicy details

What does personal freedom mean to you? Today I am writing about the kind of freedom you must create for yourself. In a speech by David Foster Wallace titled This is Water,  he references how we seldom think about where belief systems come from in each of us and inadvertently how that impacts us positively or negatively. Our ideas can cage us in or enable us to move past circumstances, people, and ideas that would stop other, less determined people. Real hell and prison are right inside our own minds. The first step to escaping and finding this freedom is waking up from the nightmare. I find it helpful to use examples outside of ourselves in order to reach for more than what we know and see all around us. We can use stories to transform our lives and selves.

Most people might guess that I am a spiritually and morally liberal person. My philosophy is to do no harm. Other individuals and cultures fascinate me, and I am not sure about where I stand on many philosophical, cultural, and social issues. My intense love and fascination of others I *think* spawned from learning the story of Jesus in Sunday School. As I grew older, I lost the idea that Jesus wasn’t here for perfection or judgment, but that he came to save the one out of the 99. I am not writing this to be a source of accurate information on Christianity or to tell anyone they need to be Christian. I don’t tell anyone I am Christian, because I do not want to be associated with other people’s ideas of what Christianity is. What I really appreciate today is the story of Jesus and the messages he preached as they apply to personal freedom.

It took me forever to begin watching this new crowdfunded series titled, The Chosen. There is a free app by the same name that anyone can download to watch the series. Now that I am on season two, I am very pleasantly surprised. Spoiler alert for episode one of season two, Jesus goes away from the Jewish community to reach EVERYONE, including the “worst” kinds of people. In that first episode, we see a man who is poor, sick, and left disabled due to uncontrollable life circumstances and as a result of almost robbing and killing a man. Jesus and the disciples help him plow his fields and make him and his family dinner. At the end of the night, while Jesus is telling him that he is the Messiah, the man begins to weep and asks him why he would help such a terribly wretched person. This man is a perfect example of how each of us can take on the stories and judgment society dictates. Instead of fighting the ideas that crush us, like this man we accept that we are wretched and unable to be forgiven and unworthy of being saved. 

The power of Jesus’ message is redemption. Every life that Jesus’ story affects in the bible is a story of transformation. That message goes on to include the reader of the New Testament. The story tells us that no one is beyond saving. How much do we hurt ourselves by telling ourselves we are unchangeable, unsaveable, unforgivable, or unlovable? How often do we label ourselves with ideas that keep us prisoner to a life we don’t want? Can we all practice letting go of the stories that do not work for us, so that we can move past the hell we keep ourselves in?

So often, we live life waiting for “one day” when we have more money, beauty, love, or whatever it is that we separate ourselves from. Or worse, we tell ourselves we are unworthy of those things or that they are impossible to obtain. Real happiness and freedom would be as simple as asking ourselves, 1. Who do I want to be? And 2. If I was that person right now, what would I be doing? We never act differently because we are in the cycle of the negative self-fulfilling prophecy. When really heaven on earth and maybe even past this life is about living into the actions of what you want to be and see right now.

Real freedom and happiness is in becoming. It is in taking that first step. It starts with the dream. It starts with a list. These are the kind of activities I could do that would help me get from where I am to where I want to be. Maybe I won’t get there today or tomorrow, or even a year from now, but as long as I start, I am on my way. I am in the process of becoming my dream, and I am in the process of changing circumstances, chains, and prisons that maybe I never realized I was agreeing to. 

The reality is we can always easily make an excuse to not move from the prison that each of us is. Are we afraid of the unknown? Is it only that we are afraid of failing? Because if we try and fail, and lose the comfort or the discomfort we know, what will be left? If we think of creation as a continual process, can we ever really fail? What if we never stop trying to be and do better? Does the seed, buried in the dark, stop before it becomes a flower to belittle itself for not getting there fast enough? Maybe it takes years to germinate. Maybe it takes this sequence of events to exponentially grow the harvest. Maybe all of these bad things had to happen in order to get you to the point you are now- so that you could fully realize the beauty that is coming out on the other side. Without the darkness, what is the light? 

For as long as we cling to the stories society tells us, we will continue to create the lie that we can not change, grow, and improve our situations and the lives around us. We are our own creators, of ourselves and of the world. We can choose to bury that truth day after day, OR we can be our own saviors, and maybe even inspiration to the people around us who did not realize we have this option. Because all it takes is one person waking up to their potential, to their vision of freedom in order to create a new world. SO, what I mean to say is, Wake Up. Aren’t you tired of being your own jailer? Wouldn’t it be lovely to be your own saviour? 

Remember: You don’t have to wait for the perfect moment to begin. Freedom is in the act of becoming. Start small, start today.

Cheers,

Astrid