In our culture, ‘freedom’, or liberty, is quite a big deal.

‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ are three unalienable rights of human beings declared in the American Declaration of Independence.

We sometimes talk about the domain of Western culture and democracy as ‘The Free World’. But freedom is quite a slippery concept.

How ‘free’, in fact, are we? Careers, lifestyles, the image we have crafted for ourselves – all of these constrain us, sometimes almost enslave us.

Our aspirations and path through life are heavily constrained by societal pressures, social expectations of our peer group, and the like.

If we say ‘freedom means freedom to do what we want’ – does that mean, freedom to indulge our appetites or follow the dictates of our instincts?

Our desire to get on, to get up the ladder, to achieve higher status, derives from the pecking order instinct we have inherited from our ape past. In that era, getting to the top of the (metaphorical) tree maximised the change of propagating our genes.

It is a very powerful instinct. If we obey it, are we simply submitting to the demands of our genes?

One freedom we do always have, day by day, hour by hour, in all circumstances however straightened, is to turn a bit towards God or to turn a bit away.

Jesus declared: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’; he also declared that the truth will set us free. Turning towards Jesus, towards truth, towards honesty; looking towards him rather than away – will gradually loose the chains that bind us to demeaning rather than uplifting ways.

Exercising the freedom to turn towards Jesus leads to real freedom. Turning to Jesus, the Truth, sets us free; Jesus is the Way – to, amongst other things, perfect freedom.

Something worth pondering, perhaps.

Andrew Partridge, St Andrew’s, Farnham