Choose the Right Freedom
BENJAMIN JUSTER
Passover is a time of profound remembrance, celebrating the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrew people from Egyptian bondage. After centuries of oppression, God intervened, fulfilling His promises to Abraham and Moses, bringing true freedom to His people.
Modern culture often defines freedom as the ability to do whatever one pleases. The prevailing mantra of individualism—" Don’ t tell me what to do "— suggests that freedom means a lack of constraints. But is that really the case? What happens when personal desires conflict with each other?
The Rolling Stones famously sang, " You can’ t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you need." This lyric hints at a deeper truth: that true freedom is not about indulging every whim but about choosing wisely between conflicting desires. Timothy Keller insightfully observed, " Modern freedom is the freedom of selfassertion. I am free if I may do whatever I want. But defining freedom this way, as the absence of constraint on choices, is unworkable because it is an impossibility."