Freedom

It is very ironic to me how we live in the "Land of the Free" yet freedom is one of the most misunderstood words in our dictionary. What is freedom? I would say that many people define freedom as the ability to choose or do as they wish, to have a free will. If this is how you define freedom, then stay in your seat and give me your focus. In order to make this as understandable as possible, I am going to explain it in 3 different ways. First, I will explain how freedom can be understood through music. Second, we will look at how this freedom relates to jiu-jitsu. Lastly, and most importantly, we will see what true freedom really is in relation to life.

Freedom in music
I am no musician but I do play the guitar a little for fun. Now if I pick up a guitar and have no idea how to play it, then I am completely free to strum it, pluck it, and play it any way I want. The only problem with such freedom is that it is going to sound horrible. No one is going to want to listen to me play guitar. Although I am free to play the guitar anyway I want, this kind of freedom has no benefit, value, or purpose. This is what I call "freedom without knowledge". Indeed I am free but this freedom is also worthless. Without knowledge of how to play the guitar it is never going to sound pleasing or serve any purpose.

Now, as I realize that playing the guitar without any knowledge of right and wrong is meaningless, I begin taking guitar lessons. In my lesson, my teacher teaches me what a C and a G cord are and tells me to practice moving from C to G and G to C. I don't know if you have ever practiced that before but when you first try, it surely isn't easy. You just can't seem to get your fingers to move the way they need to. So what is happening now is that the "freedom without knowledge" is slowly being stripped away because you are gaining in knowledge and that knowledge is making things much, much more complicated. Your freedom without knowledge is coming to an end... Death.

On the bright side, although your freedom to play how you want is fading, you don't care because your actually playing notes that sound good. The excitement of struggling to play something that sounds pleasing to the ear far out ways the excitement of freely playing something that makes you cringe. As you get better at your C and G chords your teacher begins showing you more and more and you are growing in knowledge. Through constant, grueling practice you slowly begin to realize that your fingers are able to move on their own. You start playing the guitar while singing without even thinking about what your doing. Yes...the freedom is returning. Only now you have a "knowledgeable freedom". This freedom is pleasing to the ear. With this freedom many people will be pleased to listen to you. This brings a sense of purpose and fulfillment to playing the guitar.

So there is freedom in the ability to play how you want but compared to the one who has "knowledgeable freedom", why would you ever want the other? To be sure, true freedom on the guitar is the ability to gain knowledge of what is right and wrong and freely playing what is right, only. The ability to let your fingers go and play so beautifully without messing up. The guitar was created with a purpose. Whoever created the guitar had a purpose in mind and made rules so that others could learn how to play it. In fact, the very design of the guitar itself implies that

1. It was created
2. It was created to be held and played a certain way.
3. It would bring joy to you and others when used properly.

So the guitar itself implies that it's creator specifically designed it to be played a certain way. This also implies that there are rules or "laws" to the guitar if you will. When it is played the right way, it is good and pleasing. Therefore, rules or laws are also good. Remember, ultimately knowing these laws and mastering them on the guitar will result in true freedom. Although this freedom comes with laws it does not restrict you from being fully creative, expressionate, or artistic. In fact, the laws are what eventually allow you to be pleasingly artistic and therefore free. Another way I could say this is that having a perfect relationship with the guitar and its laws will set you free.

Knowledgeable Freedom in Jiu-Jitsu
If we look at this knowledgeable freedom through the eyes of the jiu-jitsu practitioner we can see that to know what is right and what is wrong in jiu-jitsu is essential. Only by going through the fire of learning, training, failing, and knowing what is right and wrong will you become free in jiu-jitsu. Through repetitous training and drilling you will eventually get to this point that the Samurai call "Mushin". Acting without thinking. To be mindless. We also hear it as, the zone, auto pilot... in any case you begin to do the right things without even considering them first. This is freedom! The ability to do what is right without being chained to what is wrong. It is not the ability to do right or wrong. That is war not freedom. Freedom comes after the war.

Jiu-Jitsu has different stages of freedom. As a beginner, your freedom is very limited because if you do the wrong things you will be tapping for sure. When you begin to get a little better, your freedom increases because when you roll with lesser skilled opponents you can afford to mess up and be creative. With better skilled opponents you can't do that. So you are not fully free in jiu-jitsu until you are the best ever and no one is the best ever, forever. Your freedom is based on comparison.

Just like the guitar, jiu-jitsu was created with laws. You need to master the laws of jiu-jitsu to truly understand the art. As you increase in knowledge of the laws and learn to apply them, your freedom increases. As your freedom increases your ability to create, express and serve increases. This is all good! It's a perfect relationship. You follow the laws of jiu-jitsu and jiu-jitsu will prevail for you. This should give you plenty of reason to learn and study the laws of jiu-jitsu. If you are stuck in a rut, go back and review the laws; understand and apply them.

True Freedom as Applied to Life
I hope you are beginning to get an idea of what true freedom really is by now. It makes perfect sense and is good. I used the example of the guitar and of jiu-jitsu but the reality is that laws apply to everything and freedom is attached to laws. I don't know why we believe that freedom is the lack of laws. It is foolish to believe that. Even nature itself has laws. The proof is all around that laws are good and that true freedom comes by obeying the laws not by disobeying them. The process is repeated all through creation.

Wow! Now there is an interesting concept. Maybe the world was created? Indeed, the world was created, the evidence is everywhere.

"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." Romans 1:19-20

Just like the guitar implies that it was created, nature itself implies that it was created. I gave you a few examples already but you can look at anything and see that the same principle applies. Everything has been created for a purpose, has laws, and those laws are the way to freedom. If I were to use a word like righteous or holy I would basically be saying that something is flawless or perfect. So, in a sense, if you are flawless than you are naturally set apart from imperfection. Flawless meaning absolutely no flaws and imperfection meaning that something pertains one or more flaws. If there were such a thing as a guitar player or jiu-jitsu player who never made a single mistake or broke the "law" of the thing, they would be either a righteous guitarist or righteous jiu-jitsu(ist?). You could call them the god of guitar or the god of jiu-jitsu. This would then mean that they are awesome!

Here is the thing. No one can be as righteous as God without actually being God. You may be great at the guitar but you did not create it. God's righteousness is measured by His commandments or once again "laws". We all fall short of God's laws and we all fall short of righteousness. To be honest, we don't just fall short either. We all fail miserably in comparison. Just like in jiu-jitsu, your freedom is only based on comparison to the one who is the greatest. Remember, true freedom is measured by obedience to the laws of the creator of the thing. God is the Creator of all things. God is awesome and He has given us laws. I hope we are understanding by now that laws are good!!!! The problem is that we can not be in the presence of righteousness without being righteous. Righteousness can not unite with something flawed or it would no longer be righteous. Righteousness has to judge unrighteousness! The bottom line is that we can not obey the law fully and therefore be made righteous or free. Because God is righteous He has to judge the unrighteous or he would be flawed and no longer righteous. This is just the grace and beauty that we should expect from such an awesome God...He provided a perfect way to make us righteous and free.

As I made clear earlier we can not become free in anything without knowledge of right and wrong or can I say good and evil. Does the tree of knowledge of good and evil sound familiar? Yes...this is all part of God's plan. There is no plan "B". The tree of knowledge of good and evil was a necessary part of God's awesome plan. Man was made free. In my mind, man was made in a state of "freedom without knowledge". Knowledge of good and evil that is. God did not make man eat from the tree, man was free and ate from the tree himself. God told him not to eat from the tree or he would surely die. Surely he did die. As soon as he ate from the tree he knew what he had done wrong and his relationship with God was ruined. From then on things were much more complicated and his initial freedom was at an end... Death. There is much more detail than this but this is what went on in Genesis 3. That is only the 3rd chapter of the bible and the REST of the bible is about God restoring and saving his people. The Old Testament is about God's righteousness, laws, judgment and is a foreshadowing of what would soon take place. As stated before, the problem is that we can't fully obey those laws and therefore deserve God's righteous judgment. But the laws are good and were given to us as way for us to understand God's righteousness. Through the law we see that we are not God and can not become self-righteous and therefore free without God.

The New Testament is a fulfillment of the old. Since we can not fully obey the law and be free, God Himself came to earth as man in Christ and fulfilled the law for us. He made Himself as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could become righteous through faith in Christ (not in our own works) and therefore be free to love and serve God our Creator in the way that we were purposed to do.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And it is not your own doing, but is a gift from God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-9

So now it is not the "unattainable law" that sets you free but faith in Christ, who is the fulfillment of the law, and His sacrifice that justifies, sets apart and gives us true freedom.

"If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

"Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin (disobeys the law) is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed." John 8:34-36

In this country we have freedom of belief, freedom of speech and freedom of expression just to name a few. What kind of freedom do you have? Knowledgeable freedom? Or do you have freedom without knowledge? True freedom is knowledgeable and

"Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Proverbs 1:7

It is pleasing to play the guitar properly. It is pleasing to understand jiu-jitsu and to move in true freedom. To excel freely in anything is beautiful and pleasing. The Lord is good. His laws are good. It is the Holy Spirit Who, through faith in Christ Jesus, grants us freedom from judgment, and gives the power to delight in and freely obey God's righteous law. To have a perfect relationship with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is true FREEDOM!

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; Let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word." Psalm 119:9-16

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

I have seen both sides of freedom through the guitar, jiu-jitsu and life. Let me tell you, freedom without knowledge is not freedom at all. When it comes to life there is no mistake, laws are good. God's laws to be more exact. Obedience is of more value than anything you can own. Wisdom in the Lord is more precious than gold. Learn it, wear around your neck, obey it and you will be free!