[The dilemma when it comes to freedom is] not so much about running away from something as it is about wanting to run toward something but not being able to! In other words, there is a big difference between “freedom from” and “freedom to.”  

Our Unitarian Universalist faith gets this. At its best, it never simply asks us, “What do you need to get away from?” No, it pushes us to ask the deeper question of “What is it that you want to run toward?”  Mature freedom is never about the absence of all constraints; it’s about being able to commit yourself to the things that have your heart. Or to put it another way, true freedom is about constraints of our own choosing. 

So what is it for you, friends? Where in your life are you feeling forced to say “No” when your heart really wants to say “Yes”? What is it that you want to use your freedom for? It’s not the bars of a prison that make us want to escape; it’s suddenly noticing what’s on the other side of those bars that makes us want to get out. 

So this month, don’t take your eyes off of it. Keep that longing clearly in view. And if you do, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to bend open those bars… and simply walk out.

                    – Soul Matters small group packet on Freedom, June 2025

 

Love, it sits in the chest,

at least at the start.

It’s what makes our heart beat again after being broken,

and our lungs breathe again after being closed off in the dark for far too long.

…

But here is the secret. The inevitable awakening. 

The wonder that each of our lives is meant to reveal.

Love doesn’t just love us;

It asks us to become it.

…

Yes, it wants us to be whole and strong.

But love’s deepest longing is that we will use that strength

to tear down the structures that leave others bloodied and bruised.

…

And maybe this is where the second secret comes loose.

As I shake the walls to let others free,

I learn that the ones I’ve liberated include me.

                    – Soul Matters small group packet on Liberating Love, January 2024