Liberation

I used to think of liberation as a freedom from physical bondage. I pictured shackles or prison walls with no windows. I pictured slaves released or captives broken out by the hero. Only recently I have started to consider the implications of liberation in the mind, in the heart, and of the physical body. Liberation of the spirit itself. How would this liberation come? Through the Savior of course. While I feel like I understood this and certainly accepted the declaration that Jesus Christ is my personal savior and the savior of the world as truth, I did not understand how it would happen for me. Part of the reason a person might be in some form of captivity is because they are unaware. Sometimes, I felt that becoming aware was the liberation but then I would fall back into old patterns.

The key that opened further understanding for me was humility. I have spent years thinking about humility and trying to understand how I could be both submissive and incredibly strong. How could I consider myself as less than the dust of the Earth, while also embracing my divine nature? I knew that the Savior Himself withstood the most intense persecution but I also knew that it was because He was incomprehensibly strong in heart, body and mind that He was able to do so.

What I have come to realize is that you can only learn how any of this works by moving forward. If I try to understand without having faith and taking humble action, it doesn't make sense and as my "atheist" brother so poetically says, "humility feels like learning how to put up with more and more crap". Thankfully, I have chosen my path and in moments the could be painful, damaging, and full of despair I have found myself at peace. In situations when I could be plagued with doubt, regret, or dread, I have felt pure love and light. This liberation comes when I seek His will, pray for His strength and comfort, and bravely do what He would do. In His acceptance I can feel no denial. In His friendship I can feel no loneliness. In His abundance I can feel no lack.


"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken;cast down but not destroyed."
-2 Corinthians 4: 8-9

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