Sisters, our journey of freedom has taken form.  We’ve worked our way over so many boulder-lies blocking our way.  As we pause for a moment, looking back at how far we have come, we are not where we started.  It’s not been easy.  Do you ever think back to the downhill days?  How blissfully easy the downhill walk!!  I’ll admit that there have been times I’ve grown weary along the way.  I have moments where I trip into a pit along the way, and in my mind, I want to quit.  Honesty.  Sometimes, I say, “I’m tired of fighting this good fight.” 

In the last six months of 2016, I spent claiming a piece of untouched, overgrown property.  It was held captive by the Missouri jungle and longed for freedom.  The ground had a voice and wanted to be heard and seen.  That terra firma held a beauty that no eye beheld.  I spent day after day painstakingly cutting, chopping, dragging, burning, and clearing.  It was a fight beyond fights.  I bled, cried, prayed, and fought with all I had to free the earth from the jungle.  Woods so thick you could throw a baseball, only never to see it land.  I succeeded, finally.  But what I would soon realize this was a never-ending process.  Winter set in, and I sat dormant, basking victoriously in the glory of a hard-fought battle, only to discover by April the jungle crept back in, threatening the freedom of my clearing.  Are you kidding me??  Do I have to keep at this?  (You see, on the downhill path, nothing ever needs clearing, the way is simple and easy, perfect landscaping all year round.)  No one told me that once I found freedom, I would have to fight to maintain it each and every day.  That downhill path is easy.   

Exhaustion makes us want the ease of the downhill life once again.  Carless words make us crave the emptiness of that beautiful path.  Certain feelings make us long for comfort and isolation.  Enslaved, yes, but it was easy.  

The mental and emotional battles linger.  The daily fight is draining.  Certain situations trigger old feelings.  In a matter of moments, the old familiar rushes back in.  The downhill way of dealing with emotions was easier.  Our old methods of dealing with emotions led to familiarity, we always knew exactly what to expect and what to do.  Now, in freedom, everything is uncertain.  And you hear yourself utter, “It was easier that way.”  Depression, guilt, shame—-pits of emotion remind you that being free is not worth it.  

What is the point of painstakingly fighting every day?  Why does it matter?  

We follow Christ.  No one ever said it was easy.  It’s so challenging that not many succeed at following Him to the end.  A couple of boulder-lies, the pit of emotion, and most are out, headed back downhill.  If it was just a mere, “Yep, I believe Jesus is the son of God, and He rose from the dead on the third day,” everyone could succeed.  But it’s a daily battle.  Freedom is a never-ending fight; it’s a battle we do not want to lose.  “Stand your ground” is a moment-by-moment phrase.  It matters because our eternity is at stake.  At the bottom of that blissful, easy path is eternal separation from our Father.  Living in freedom and staying in freedom is possible.    

Sisters, we need one another.  We need one another to remind us of why we will continue.  It’s hard to think and see clearly in the pit of emotion.  It’s easy to spiral out of control alone; the pit of emotion will overtake us.  However, it’s only a one-person-sized pit, and when we have linked arms, we may trip, but we cannot fall in.  We stand our ground together, set our faces to the shadows, and announce, “You cannot have me back.”  This journey of freedom is eternally worth it!