A few weeks ago I blogged about my experience in San Antonio, Texas taking “C-4″ training (combat casualty care course) with the Marines. This was a mandatory training course every US Navy physician was required to take. One of my keenest memories of the week with the Marines is a discussion I had with two of them late one night. The tents slept 20 men & had a stove in the center. We had 2 Marines assigned to each tent, which gave me an opportunity to get to know these 18 year-old soldiers. There was only one reason I was in the Navy – the Navy paid my medical school tuition. I sat in the tent that night at the age of 27 looking forward to finishing my OBGYN residency at Bethesda Naval Hospital, serving my time after residency, & then pursuing a lucrative private practice. As I talked with these 2 Marines, I realized they had signed up to defend my freedom. They openly talked about their love of this country & their desire to defend our freedom. These young men were willing to lay down their lives so that I could pursue my own self-centered dreams.

This was a humbling experience. That night I realized for the first time in my life the primary importance of freedom. And I wondered if I were truly free. In many ways, I felt as though I was in bondage to my own selfish desires. Would I want someone else to lose their life so I could stay in bondage to what Paul calls “the flesh?” Is that the type of “freedom” I would settle for?

Everyone wants to be free. The issue is what kind of freedom you will settle for in your life. In Galatians 5 Paul talks about freedom. Paul makes a convincing case that true freedom can only be experienced, lived, as we walk by the Spirit. When I walk with the Spirit, Paul tells me that the Spirit then gives me fruit. And a life bearing the fruit of the Spirit is a life of freedom. I have discovered this freedom is the only freedom worth dying for. What do you think?