“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
2 Corinthians 3:17
Freedom can be found in the place
between accepting that God's plans are different than yours and being able to
accept and thrive upon that knowledge.
Several years back, I was a Ph.D.
Student, studying Rhetoric and the Philosophy of Communications. I was finishing up my third year of
coursework and beginning to contemplate my doctoral exams, dissertation etc. My plan was to enter the academic world with
a mind full of knowledge awaiting the many opportunities to write, read, and
teach about ancient philosophers. Looking back, this does not sound the least
bit interesting, yet I confess this was my goal.
However this was my plan and my
plan alone. I forged ahead without ever
taking it to God. I believed that I was
in the best position to make the decisions about my future and if I thought it
was best, surely God would think the same.
I became caught up in a world of accolades and grade point averages.
I believed that I was making
decisions from a place of “freedom”. However the “freedom” that I was working
from had very little, if anything, to do with God's idea of “freedom”, which I
now know can only come from understanding, listening and accepting God's will
for your life.
God spoke to me through an 85 year
old assisted living resident and began to show me what His plan of “freedom”
would look like in my own life. After
spending a few moments talking with this very sweet lady, she asked if I could
come back and visit. Her sweet face and
tired eyes had me kneeling down beside her and telling her that I would be
back. It was over the next several
months that God began speaking to me, now I know that He had been speaking to
me all along, I just had not been listening.
After visiting with the residents at the assisted living facility and
becoming fast friends with several of them, God began to lift the blinders from
my eyes, heart and soul. He spoke to me
about “freedom” and how His plans for my life would end my search for
peace. He allowed me to argue with Him,
telling Him that my plans were better for me and if I listened to Him, all of my hard work
would be for not. Looking back, I am mortified that I ever thought my plans and
ideas were better than His and saddened that I had been striving for earthly
rewards instead of heavenly rewards.
He then lifted the blinders completely from my
eyes (when He knew I was ready) and I instantly knew that His plan would allow
me to experience the freedom needed to glorify Him and since this is the reason
He created us, I began to find great comfort and peace in His knowledge, His
plans and His will for my life.
He broke the chains of my earthly
desire to selfishly succeed for my own reasons and allowed me to live life,
with a sense of wild abandon and freedom... for Him!
Leigh Lowden is an author, speaker and ministry leader. Leigh ministers to assisted living and
Alzheimer's patients, encouraging and sharing with them God's purpose and place
in their lives.
She is humbled by God's presence in her life and dedicates
herself to ministering to His people.
Leigh is blessed with a wonderful husband, two awesome kids
and one very cool Golden retriever puppy.
