Independence Day

Humid air glowed as the sun slanted toward the West; it was the Fourth of July and I was making my way home from a call to the Doro clinic. I sped on the quad across the bumpy terrain and balanced my weight on my heels. The sensation was much like riding a cantering horse and I was back in Oregon, remembering an Independence Day seven years earlier. Aback one of Camp Morrow's mares, I rode in the high country east of Mt Hood. I loved the sensation of sheer freedom with the powerful creature beneath me as we flew across untamed land.

Navigating the four-wheeler through a bog brought my mind back to the present. I contrasted my liberties, experiences, and joy of life with those of the young lady that I had just seen at the clinic.

She was only seventeen but in her few years, she had already suffered more than I would ever know. The beautiful Mabaan girl had been married for two years. She was the third wife to a husband whose infidelity brought the pain of disease. The young woman was suffering from an infection that affected her fertility. While she was counseled and prayed with, I studied her blank expression and tried to understand the bleak outlook this girl must be experiencing.

She grew up, I'm sure, with hopes of being cherished as all young girls do. But maybe the years of war and displacement taught her that dreams are frivolity. Like most other Mabaan women, she was not educated to read or write. After her marriage, she hoped to have the children that would give her life meaning and value. But the passing years provided no consolation; her role remained limited to cooking and harvesting. She, the youngest wife in a loveless marriage.

Could hope be found in such a life? A life without the promise of education, adventure, or love? I realized I was attributing my individualist dreams as something she might desire. My dreams that were formed in a Nation that seeks the moral ideal of liberty and justice. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, observed, "Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God?" The founding fathers of the United States knew that Liberty (grouped with "Life" and "Happiness" in the Preamble), is found in Someone Greater than oneself.

Back at base that Sunday evening, we had a devotional from Isaiah 61. This passage from verses 1-3 describes the purpose of Jesus' ministry on earth; "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; [...] to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting so they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." True freedom is only found in a relationship with Jesus Christ; He is the only source of purpose for life.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Corinthians 3:17.