I Am Bound

The greatest story of sacrifice, (besides the story of Jesus, himself) is the story of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was Abraham's beloved son. God said to Abraham, "Sacrifice him."

Many parents today still hold their children above all else. Except, there is a fraying there. More and more, parents are elevating their personal freedoms above their children. That is, they are willing to sacrifice their children's welfare for the sake of indulging their freedoms - freedom to pamper themselves, freedom to party, freedom to pursue the emotion of the moment.

Think of time. Time is precious. How often do we hear parents say to their children, "I don't have time" - time to play with that child, time to read to that child, time to take that child for a walk? Why? Because to indulge that child would be to infringe upon that adult's freedom to indulge himself.

How many married men still value their freedom to look at other women; even to pursue and fornicate with other women? How many married women, now more than ever, flex those same muscles.

Freedom. Freedom to indulge my lusts, my greed, my anger. Stop it, and try sacrificing that freedom for the good of your spouse, you child, and your community.

We earn money, and then we declare, "I'm free to spend my money as I please." Sacrifice. Say, "I am not free to spend my money as I please; I am bound to think of others and how I can help my fellow man."

Sacrificing freedom has a broad range of applications - in the home, in the community, and worldwide. That's right, we can go big! There are many things we do out of might rather than right. When we sacrifice the prerogatives of might, we make way for the tenets of right. (The piece, Terminators V: Release of the Drones, is an example of the prerogatives of freedom.)

Freedom can go awry. In the piece, "Cowards, Followers, and Fools" local office workers mirror the actions of congressmen and senators in a headlong rush over the falls. A couple of days after writing the piece, I share it with a broad cross-section of that office. I guess you say I was looking to pick a fight - not for personal reasons, except ti was time we challenged ourselves. But, there were no fights. In fact, they came to me later, one by one - not all, but a cross-section - shook my hand, and apologized. I accepted their handshakes and apologies, but that had never been my objective.

All 44 men had failed to respond to a common courtesy - the posting of a bookmark announcing the publication of my latest book. Featured on the bookmark, a message - one that foretold the workers' behavior to the 100th percent. I was not nearly so bothered as I was absolutely amused.

The bookmark speaks of an "uncommon distance between humans" in terms of light years. It should not be such an impossible distance, yet, more and more, it is becoming a distance only God can traverse.

If we will surrender, however - if, in fact, we were to sacrifice ourselves, our freedoms,; if we were to say, "I am not free; I am bound," - then we could yet realize our benevolent designs.