(Jesus, John 8:32)
In the movie, "Braveheart," there is an incredibly emotional execution scene where William Wallace, the famous Scottish freedom fighter, (played by Mel Gibson) is being tortured before a crowd of onlookers. The executioner taunts and begs Wallace to "submit to the king of England and beg for mercy." Tired and exasperated, Wallace looks up at the executioner and adamantly refuses and instead gives a death cry toward the audience yelling "freedom!"
Freedom. Freedom is at the core of who we are as human beings. We fight, we struggle, we speak out for the right to be free!
Another famous person of history, Patrick Henry, a statesman and promoter of the American Revolution proclaimed, "Give me liberty or give me death!" That's how important this seven-letter word is to our existence!
I have a precious friend who lives in Iran. She will remain "nameless" because of personal security reasons. She is a dedicated English Supervisor and teacher and works very hard at teaching children. Recently, I received an emotional and angry email from her. Like other Iranians, she is struggling to survive in a culture of oppression and fear where personal freedom is almost non-existent. My friend laments in anger and outrage, "I feel we wont have a free country. I know that we won't! In this country every single action done by people must be monitored by the government! It is ridiculous, we should ask the government's permission if we wanna die! I hate, hate, hate this government.!"
My friends goes on to proclaim in another outburst of emotional frustration, "I feel we are like animals who are living in a box and when they need us to grow they feed us and when we wont, we are imposed to die. I wanna shout everywhere. I want all people to know, I hate, hate, hate this government!"
Can you feel? Can you hear the despair and anger and frustration of what my friend is feeling inside everyday? In America, government is " of the people, by the people and for the people." In Iran, the government is your God and they control your life from birth until death.
How do we respond to this?
First we pray and then we speak out for their human rights and freedom. This is what I do everyday. I have the freedom that my friend desperately wants and its very painful that I cannot give it to her.
Before his death, William Wallace cried out "Freedom!"
This is all that my friend wants! Will you cry out for her freedom?
