A Dangerous Amnesia

This article has stories about a spider and a snake - first, the spider story. 

‘A spider dropped a single strand down from the rafter of an old barn and began to weave his web. Months went by, and the web grew. Its elaborate maze caught flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects, providing the spider with a rich diet. Eventually, it became the envy of all the other spiders. 

Then, one day, the spider who weaved the web noticed that single strand stretching up to the rafters. 'I wonder why it's there. It doesn't catch me any dinner.' Concluding it was unnecessary, he climbed as high as possible and severed it. At that moment, the entire web began to fall upon itself, tumbling to the floor, taking the spider with it.’

Could it be we in America and many other free nations are making the same mistake as the spider? Is it possible, after weaving that one small thread in the beginning that supports everything that we, with God’s guidance, have built only to forget about and discard that one small thread later, destroying what we have achieved and ourselves in the process?  

Can people grow so successful, smug, and self-sufficient that they forget the purpose of the strong strand supporting them? Could we look at our prosperity and become so ungrateful that we respond to God with unbridled arrogance?  

One of the greatest gifts that God gives to all people is freedom. In America, a tiny thread that makes everything possible. The thread woven into our nation's very foundation is freedom with responsible limits. Our founding fathers knew that. They learned how wisdom operates from reading the Bible, God’s operating manual, in Galatians 5. Here's what God said to the church in Galatia about freedom.  

"It is obvious that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out. In no time at all, you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?" Galatians 5:13-15. That's a word for all of us for today.  

It's easy to forget that freedom is both very strong and very fragile. Just like anything, if we continue to abuse freedom and make freedom go where it was never intended to go, we can destroy it. Good things taken to extremes become bad things. Freedom without limits or the proper use of wisdom takes us down a path that eventually will destroy freedom. A river without borders is a swamp. Empires have fallen for less than this. 

What makes freedom go where it was never intended to go? We tend to be selfish and 'political.' Someone once said, “Politics is the art of making your own selfish desires seem like the national interest.” Unfortunately, politics in our times has degraded into extreme selfishness a great deal of the time. 

Politics causes us to forget there are issues other than our own favorite ones. Politics makes us so focused that we become unaware of others and the bigger picture. Politics makes us adversarial and separates us. Politics makes the ‘means the end’ and the ‘end the means.’ Politics legitimizes lying and demonizing. Politics makes the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy. Politics closes our eyes to the consequences of bad decisions later. Extreme politics leads to amnesia for others and our country, cutting down the very strand of freedom that makes politics possible. 

These days, most people look at freedom from an individual perspective. In other words, freedom is what 'I' want to do. We like to make everyone else and everything else into our image. How about considering how your freedom affects others, too? If you live in a bubble, you’ll eventually suffocate. Contrary to the media ads or current culture jargon, it's not about you or me. That’s not freedom. That bondage cuts the strand of our being a people and a nation. 

It was for freedom that Christ set us free, but not for political manipulation or misguided human agendas. Jesus said in John 8:32 that the truth is what sets people free. There is no freedom without truth. If truth is lacking, then there will eventually be no freedom. If the truth sets us free, then only the truth will keep us free. Beware of folks who are in it to spin it.  

Lastly, consider this story about a snake. 

There was a snake that crawled over a sharp saw and was cut. In anger, the snake wrapped the saw with its thick body and tried to squeeze the life out of it. With each angry squeeze, it felt more pain but continued because it wasn’t going to let the saw get away with the pain it caused it. The snake, refusing to let go of the saw, eventually died; not knowing the whole time, all the snake needed to do was let go of the initial pain and focus on its future. That snake was born to win but conditioned to lose. How about us?  

I've been to over 100 countries, and I can assure you, there's no place like America and other free countries like America. Freedom is when you can honor someone, even like them, despite disagreeing with them. In 2024, let's become less political and more thankful that we live in a country where the freedom of different opinions is possible. That's freedom!  

Thus, saith the spider, snake, God, and Ed.