Freedom

Freedom

Freedom! Freedom from depression, from sadness, from the chains of addiction! At least for part of this day - that is how I felt ~ free. It was mostly a good day ~ and that goodness can only come from God. Today I want to focus on freedom.

For much of my life I was held captive ~ by controllers or abusers. I even joked with people in support groups and in therapy ~ "Every year or so, I would spend time at our family's concentration camp!" They would look confused, shocked, or disbelieving. Some people still do not believe that we had concentration camps in America - in American history. No way! But they are wrong. To the people behind the barbed-wire fences and guard towers ~ they knew that they were being led to a concentration camp when the gates closed behind them. To the people who were herded and poked in the back with a sword, pistol, Winchester, M1, or M16 as they were led into these "detention centers", "relocation centers", or whatever the government called them at that particular time in history ~ those people knew that they had lost their freedom.

After World War II ended, my family bought the land where one of the ten Japanese-American concentration camps once stood. Today there is still evidence left behind of the 8,000 people (half of them children) that were kept there: a smoke stack from the hospital, huge concrete circles where the water was treated, and soil filled with broken concrete, gravel, and sand. When I was younger, in the 50's, there was much more of the camp showing. Now there is a monument and Japanese-Americans come with their grandparents to visit the place where they went to school - behind barbed wire; where they played baseball - with a gun pointing at them from the watchtower.

Yes, I grew up and played baseball in the same place that someone else did - we shared one thing in common - across the years: the feeling of being trapped. I felt trapped and stifled by abuse and a family system steeped in secrets. Shedding light on my family's disfunctional lifestyle, on the secret sins, on the unspeakable acts ~ this helped me to be free from continuing the cycle of abuse. Truth! Truth will set people free ~ can set a nation free from future acts of injustice. Fear traps people and nations in disfunctional behavior. Seeing the world through God's eyes is the solution. Seeking truth in all things. However, truth that is not tempered with love, mercy, and grace - only leads to more fear, hatred, and abuse. Truth and freedom go hand in hand.

Freedom ~ it is a wonderful feeling! Jesus' touch can free us from pain and he came to free us ~ came to free me:

"God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!" Luke 4:18-19

Today, I feel like rejoicing. My wheelchair is fixed and I am free to move around! The rain has stopped and I can cruise outside unto my patio and take a breath. My life has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. Life can be good ~ with God's help and with the prison gates open wide - Life can be good!

Lord, thank you for the freedom that Your love and grace bring to me. You are powerful beyond measure and I feel so free when I am plugged into You. Forgive me when I do not see Your love everywhere and in every thing. Lord, I pray for those that are still in prison ~ whether it be spiritually, physically, emotionally, or mentally. Show them that they can be free ~ with your help. Through Christ all things are possible and through His name I come before you, Amen.

Below the song - "I Am Free" is the three part introduction to the film series that I am working on about Jerome Arkansas and the Japanese American camps during WWII.