An Independence Day Reflection

My best friend Angela is really good at teaching math. She’s good at everything else she teaches too, but she’s particularly good at teaching math because math is something she once had trouble understanding. She doesn’t remember learning to read. She doesn’t remember learning to spell or write. I don’t either. And I don’t really remember learning basic math (though I do remember learning calculus). But Angela remembers basic math…because it was a struggle.

I think that’s how it is with a lot of things in life: we tend to vividly remember the things that we’ve learned through struggle while simply accepting the things that come naturally. I don’t think that this is a bad thing. I think it’s just part of life.

Take, for instance, faith. I grew up going to church almost every time the church doors opened. I learned about God and accepted Jesus very early in life. It was part of who I am before I even knew what it was. Yet when I began to question and struggle through things that I didn’t understand, my faith became my own. My faith is still becoming my own. I recognize that fact and remember the struggle.

And today…today I think about freedom. Freedom is one of the things that I sometimes take for granted because it’s there—like my faith and my ability to read and write and do arithmetic. Though I realize that many people have and daily do fight and struggle for it—and for them I am grateful—I, personally, I haven’t had to struggle to receive freedom. I was born into this country where I am free. I am free to go to school and work and worship and to go to a day-spa and ride on a boat and shop for things that I need (and sometimes just want) and swim in my landlord’s swimming pool and lay in a hammock by the lake and sit in my apartment and type on my computer and live a life of luxury that, ultimately, I did very little to deserve.

This holiday weekend, I am so blessed. And fortunate. And so very grateful for the freedom that I find myself in and I recognize it and honor it and remember it rather than simply accepting it…today.