FFRRREEEEEEEEEDDDDOOOOMMMM!!!!

Today, I am all

And then I’m

And then I’m back to

I got disconnected from My Buddy today!  If you didn’t read my blog post about Buddy, you can find it here.  To catch you up, I was attached to a wound vac for 16 days.  And you know the old saying.  “Sit by a pretty girl for an hour it seems like a minute.  Wear a wound vac for 16 days it seems like a year.”  Or something like that.  I still have an open wound that I have to keep clean and dressed, but in many ways I feel like I have gotten my life back.  I am ready – and excited – to start exercising again.  I can hardly wait to get into the gym today (still taking it easy, mind you).  I don’t have to stay plugged in to charge at night anymore, so I can resume helping with Shelby’s overnight care.  My sweet husband has done more than his share.  And I can start expanding my wardrobe.  Since I had a tube coming straight out of my stomach, I was limited to 2 piece outfits with very stretchy waist bands.  I could not wear a dress without a hose coming up underneath or over the top.  And for modesty’s sake, neither of us wanted that!  I can barely contain my excitement!  I feel pounds lighter not being encumbered by that machine.

I want to keep enjoying this freedom.  In fact, I want to grow it.  If it feels this good to rid myself of a 5 lb box attached to my gut, what else can I toss that is weighing me down?  It stands to reason that sin, especially sins that are often repeated, could be keeping me from true freedom.  Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we should “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us”.  Only then can we “run with endurance the race that is set before us”.  NASB  This verse reminds me of the TV show “Biggest Loser”.  I watched this program religiously before I got disgusted with the methods and the loose-weight-quick message it was sending.  But if you ever watched the show, you might remember that several months into the new lifestyle journey, the contestants would be asked to strap on sand bags in the amount of the weight they had shed up to that point – and then run.  Some of them would drag 70, 80, 100 lbs of extra weight around the track.  You could almost see the lightbulbs go off as they each realized how much their bodies had struggled to carry that extra flesh for so long.  As hard as it is to sit with my sin nature and dissect it, I am excited to feel that extra weight come off.  I know there are some sins of pride, selfishness and gluttony that need to be cut out of my life.  They may not come off as fast as fat on a crash diet, but I am ready to start wrestling them through with God’s help.

I don’t want to stop the spring cleaning there.  I am thinking there are things in my life that, while not biblically sin, are not God’s best for me right now.  2 Peter 2:19 says “for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”  NASB  What is inhibiting my kingdom work?  Or my joy for that matter?  A relationship?  A schedule that’s way too busy?  A social media addiction?  Messy finances?  I’ll be cleaning out these bins next.

What do you need to throw off today?  Jesus did the work to give us our ultimate freedom (from the eternal consequences of sin) when he died on the cross in our place.  But He certainly didn’t make that sacrifice so we could ensnare and enslave ourselves to lesser things.  “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  Galatians 5:1 NASB  Come on.  We’ve got some freedom work to do.