Red, White, and Used.

As the fourth of July rapidly approaches, America prepares to celebrate Independence. Fireworks will light the sky and people will don their best reds, whites, and blues. We’ll throw out the word freedom over and over and over. But I wonder what it really means to most of us and I wonder how many of us truly appreciate it. Still, on the fourth day of July we stand behind our flag with confidence. I mean no disrespect (especially to those who have fought for freedom), but this July 4th I don’t know how to stand behind a flag. I don’t know how to celebrate my freedom while the freedom of so many is being taken away. This year I hope that anyone who is aware of the 27 million slaves worldwide will think of freedom as being much bigger than a roadside carnival with cotton candy and fireworks. It’s bigger even than red, white and blue. I am mindful of global slavery in an entirely new way and that means this Independence Day will be entirely different for me. This year, these lessons, won’t let me forget.

One month ago, I spent 2 days with rescued slaves, some who were born into slavery and others driven to it by poverty. I watched their hopeful, yet uncertain eyes as they saw their new reality: freedom. I had the great honor of twirling and running around with the beautiful little kids: kids who initially didn’t quite know how to play because they hadn’t really had the opportunity to do so before. (I hope to provide you more details about this experience later. It was so surreal, with plenty of amazing and an ample amount of terrible.) All that is to say, this year as Independence Day rolls around I won’t be singing God Bless America and I won’t be missing the firecrackers. I’ll be thinking of those faces of newly freed slaves not so long ago. I’ll be seeing a bigger picture of independence than I’ve ever seen before. I’ll be focused on IJM’s past success in freeing slaves and I’ll be aware of the work that lies ahead. As you prepare for July 4th, maybe you can join me in thinking on these things. Maybe freedom will take on a different meaning for all of us. Oh how great that would be! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.

Freedom is not a given, let us use it well.

Lauren.Susan.