When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom. ... Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be. Henri Nouwen Bread for the JourneyIn my own struggles I don't feel free but somehow there is freedom. One international student has consistently asked me why I seem so content. I don't feel it very much but she sees or feels something that she does not have.
This last week I've thought about my trip and also looked forwards. Through ministry meetings and spiritual direction I know I need very much to deal issues of freedom within structure. To my friends this means I've started cleaning and tidying up my physical living space, I still have taxes and other things to deal with. I think freedom has to deal with "freedom to do something" and "freedom for a purpose or person". Put another way in spiritual terms the second includes freedom to act for self but for God's sake, to do things for ourselves because of the love God has for us.