Perils of Freedom Part Five - Being A Slave

This is the last post in this topic, a series of thoughts that will hopefully lead me to a deeper understanding of my second novel. In part one, I talked about slavery and about the various responsibilities of slave owners. In part two, I talked about property and asked the question who really owned property. In part three, I talked about obligations and our responsibility to one another. And in part four, I talked about free will - and noted how free will didn't always mean we could do whatever we wanted. In this part part, I want to talk about what it means to be a slave and I want to explain, or attempt to explain, why I think this topic is important to explore for my second novel. So bear with me. I know where I'm headed, I'm just not sure where I'll end up.

The first thing I asked was whether you thought you could ever own a slave. I gave a series of tough questions with practical real world applications (where would you keep a slave, what would your slave do, etc...) but I never really dwelled upon the concept of being a slave. What would it be like to give up your freedom, either willingly or not.

To be sure, the idea of being forced to make small rocks out of big rocks doesn't really appeal to me. Nor does the idea of hard labor out under the sun with back breaking work picking crops or building roads. Handing control of my life over to another is dangerous at best. Someone's idea of how much and what kind of food I can eat scares the heck out of me. I'm not sure I could survive picking crops on a diet of wheatgerm and insect meat.

On the other hand, I wonder how much comfort there would be in the sameness and the lack of responsibility of being a slave. Every morning, up before dawn, picking crops, or digging ditches or whatever, a couple of meals, and then dropping down to sleep at night. No bills to pay. No mouths to feed. No shelter to find. No meetings and obligations. I could just exist - quietly - and not worry about anyone else's survival but my own. No muss, no fuss, no worries. If you give up the struggle for freedom, perhaps you can give in to the idea of being taken care of with ease.

As an American, born with a deep grown respect for freedom, it bothers me what some people have done with their birthright. Choosing to do evil, instead of good. Choosing to lord their possessions over others, instead of sharing them. Choosing to ignore their opportunites, instead of working for advancement. And it bothers me that some people seem ready to exploit anyone who falls by the wayside, instead of helping them out. We can be an arrogant group - offering help, but only at a cost. Or we can be an inspirational leader - showing the rest of the world how it ought to be done. We use our national free will about as effectively as the average human being - sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. But the one thing it seems we will never do is willingly give up our freedom. We paid too high a price for it. And we continue to pay that price on a daily basis.

I imagine most people feel that way. I imagine that we all like to call the shots. I realize that we all want to feel that we are in control of our own destiny and that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want. Freedom is ours. Freedom is mine. Keep your hands off my freedom. Don't Tread On Me!

Except it isn't real, and it never was. When we were children, we were tied to our parents control - they told us what to do and we did it (with varying degrees of success). And when we moved beyond our parents control, we came under the jurisdiction of the state - free to do whatever we wanted... within pre-determined boundaries. And then there were the voluntary relinquishings of our freedom - jobs, bills, mortgages, wives, children - each one an erosion of our freedom, each one a boundary made up of consequences and perils. We claim to love freedom, but we discard it frequently in favor of other things. We trade our freedom for vices - drugs, alcohol, gambling, smoking. We trade it for responsibility - school, work, church, organizations. We trade it for social interaction - friends, family, dating. We can trade away our freedom easily. But we can't trade away our free will - our right, our responsibility to make choices. No matter what we do, we are constantly asked to relinquish control of our lives and the only person who can make the decision is ourselves. We are responsible for our own decision to become slaves.

Yet, most of us aren't happy. We are slaves to things that can not provide happiness to us. We are caught in a quandry - asked to trade our land for trinkets knowing that we own neither and that neither one will make us truly happy. We are only willing to embrace slavery part way - on a conditional basis - before we move on to something else, some other thing that won't make us happy either. We are constantly looking for that one slave master who will treat us well and give us purpose all the remaining days of our lives.

For me, that person is Jesus Christ. But He is a hard slave master. He demands complete loyalty. He demands my life and my labor and my heart and my mind and every single possession I have ever had or will have. But most of all, He demands my freedom. He demands that I give up everything that I am so that He will attain all of the glory of my actions, thoughts, and feelings. I will work for Him and He will get all the praise for my work. And... and this is the hardest part... He wants me to do it not only voluntarily, but with joy in my heart.

I am a humble slave. I am gladly a humble slave. I work for my Lord and in exchange, I don't worry about a single thing. I work hard and I receive joy and happiness. I am a happy slave who trusts and praises his slave master. Freedom is a beautiful thing, but it is dangerous. Won't you join me in slavery?

Okay... I'm sure you're now wondering what this has to do with my second novel. The novel is going to explore several topics related to the subject - giving up your life for the greater good, our obligations to one another, the concepts of being a slave to things both good and evil. It will not be a preachy book. It will not be Narnia reborn. Its about a City out of Time (COOT, for short ;) that exists outside of existence. Its about a guy who discovers that he has been born with the ability to enter this city and to become one of its citizens. And its about his struggles to live there, to love there, and to accept his role in the city's destiny. And that's all you get to know until I finish writing the synopsis.

Thank you for reading this. Now we can begin the discussions in earnest as I rest my weary brain for other, more important, work.