Freedom from Boundaries

Without fail, dwelling on the sovereignty of God brings me to a comfortable way of being or a way of existing that can be described as 'smallness'.

If you have ever watched an independent child go through the cycle of learning their dependence either by fear or by discipline, you will understand what 'smallness' is and what freedom it brings.

When a child is in the wide world, there are no boundaries. Curiosity takes over and there is discovery and exploration. One common exploration is the desire to test where the boundaries are.

Whether in expressing independence from their parents or discovering the extent of their physical limitations in exploring, eventually there comes a time that a boundary is discovered. The parent says, "enough." or an understanding of danger brings the child back to the familiar and safer ground.

With either, wherever the boundary ends, the child learns that everything within that boundary is fair game and suddenly there is liberty to be creative, to be expressive, to run right up to that boundary without any fear of going too far. There is a trust in the parent that they will care for anything outside of the child's boundaries. Fear and trust gives them the freedom to love life and drink of it fully. Inside of these boundaries is completely worry free.

When I rest in being small before God, there are all kinds of places that I don't need to be during my day… I don't need to worry about what will be or what has been, that is not where I should be, those areas are for God to guard. I don't need to consider if my action or inaction will result in success in this life or in God's Kingdom, I only need to learn to hear His voice and obey it. I don't need to try to appease Him or strive to be for others anything that He did not intend me to be. I need only run within the boundaries that He made for me.

All of this is freedom: freedom to be ourselves, freedom to express our pleasures, reveal our hurts, freedom from worry and freedom from fear of being in control; because in the end, it is the desire to be in control that ruins our joy in being small.

When you or I find ourselves resting in our own strategy, our own strength, our cunning, finesse, our ability to pray in a way that will garner favor or act righteously so as to please God for the sake of His 'blessing'… we are not resting in God, but in ourselves. Resting in yourself, as you may well sense, is resting in something finite, limited and full of mistakes. There is no real comfort or rest in that place, only an exploration that will end poorly.

~ T. Brygger