Freedom!!!

For the past three years, my family and I have vacationed on the beach in St. Augustine, Florida. While there, I have had the most profound conversations with my children. From playing the game of "Ask me anything you want" to family history and eventually turning to spiritual truths.

This year was the same and the result was exciting for me as a father and spiritual guide. The following is a conversation with one of my 11 year olds.



The morning started like every other morning on vacation. I had a cup of coffee, read my Bible, had a cup of coffee, read a chapter in a book, had a cup of coffee, and then headed down to the beach for some quiet time. However, today my son Trent decided to come along with me. I explained that I was not headed down to swim at 10 AM, but just to pray and be quiet before the Lord. He shook his head, understanding that to mean "leave Dad alone once we get down there" and he headed down with me.

As I walked in the waves I prayed, sang a song or two, and just allowed myself to center on Him. About that time, my son joined me walking in the waves silently. Feeling awkward that he was there, I began to sing again. He didn't know the words, but he was reverently listening.

I began to have a need to explain the necessity for all that I had spent my morning doing. I started to share that living out Christianity isn't a difficult thing to do. That it really is about a choice everyday to pick up your cross and follow Jesus - which means to do as He did. That includes giving up your right to honor, being right, you need to prefer others over yourself, giving freely, loving despite being hated, and so on and so on.

All of this, choosing to take up the cross, is about living in response to God's love for us. I explained that some people will tell you it is all too hard. That Christianity is just a bunch of rules God gave us because He doesn't want us to have any fun. Like you can't have sex outside of marriage, you can't lie, you can't kill, you can't... you can't... you can't...

I shared with Trent how this was a negative perception of rules and I explained relating to his daily experience at home. I asked him what I have him do every morning. He chattered off a list that read - get up, shower, brush my teeth, change my clothes, eat breakfast, and do my reading - and all that before I can play on my iPod or watch TV. I applauded his accuracy and asked him why he thought I did that, to which he responded with another list that read - so we can go to a friend's house when we want, so that when are you ready to go - we are too, so that when we want to go outside and play - we can. I again applauded his thinking.

I turned the conversation back to spiritual things and shared how God is the same way. God didn't give us a bunch of rules that we have to follow because He is mean. He always give us the "thou shalt nots" in order that "we may do... A, B, or C". God wants us to have the best life possible. And those "thou shalt nots" are the path to that best life. They protect us and keep us available to do what we want and even greater than that is what He wants us to do. His purposes are higher than ours and sometimes He calls us to do something, but if we aren't ready because we haven't read our Bibles or been praying or fasting, then we can't go do them.

Now here's where I'm going to end this post... Because I could continue and back it all up with scripture. However, I feel like my son's response to all of this was powerful enough to just finish with this...

After explaining all of this, I turned to my son and reiterated that Christianity isn't about a bunch of rules, just like I'm not about a bunch of rules. People think that it is restricting. Trying to keep them from having fun. He turned to me... and this is what he said that just made me grin from ear to ear.

"Dad, it isn't restricting at all. It's freedom."