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Are You Free? By: Julie Carr

In anticipation of the holiday quickly approaching, I want to ask you a question. The question
is this; “Are you free?” Or, are you enslaved to a life that was never your intention to live? A life
that if you are honest with yourself, has become a disappointment.

The sad reality is research tells us that over 80% of adults in the US report they feel trapped;
trapped in lives that bring them neither joy or satisfaction. Feeling as if they are destined to live
the rest of their days going through the motions. We live in the greatest country in the world
where men and women died so that we may experience freedom each day. Yet, most of us if we
are honest, don’t know what freedom feels like in our own hearts and minds.

I would like to share a story with you about freedom. A story about personal redemption and
the all out commitment to live a life of meaning, purpose and intention. The story starts with a
conversation. Here is how it went.

Background: Open house, great food, great conversation and even greater fellowship with
people I adore.

“You know, Julie, I really don’t think that anyone is meant to live a life of passion. I mean, I
have a job that I really don’t like and my husband has a job he doesn’t really like. So what. That is
just life. You do what you have to do and get through it. Who really like what they do?”
--Said woman who doesn’t get it.

Yikes! At first I thought she was joking. Then I realized she was serious. There were multiple
sirens going off in my brain as I tried desperately to attach some sort of meaning to this ludicrous-
ness. I thought of a million and trillion things to say back, but decided against it.

I smiled instead and responded with this,
“I live everyday with passion. I can’t imagine not living that way.”
--Said woman who FINALLY gets it after years of searching! (that is me by the way if you didn’t
already know that:)

I do not have a three point system or a five point plan for you to find freedom. Not today any-
way. Here is what I do know after having lived in slavery too long and now I am free.

Freedom ain’t free. (excuse the grammar) You will have to die to many of your old ideas, ways
of thinking and and dump the other slaves that hold you down at their level.

Freedom requires from you a new definition of normal. To be free you have to define your free-
dom and fight to hold that ground.

Freedom will be uncomfortable to attain, in the short term. However, the alternative, slavery, is
a lifelong prison sentence my friend.

Freedom will require that you believe and trust in the process. Especially though heart
wrenching at times when you feel like giving up and giving in. Your personal freedom is worth
every battle that you have to fight.

As you celebrate the freedom of our country this fourth of July, think about your own life. Ask
the tough question, “Am I free?” If the answer is no, what do you need to do to get your freedom
back? You have been designed to be free, to live with purpose and fulfill the calling that God has
placed on your life. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words in the book of Galatians, 5:1, “It
is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery”

Your freedom is worth the fight.

KELLY@SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM 989 672 0799 SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM July 2017 SPORTS FINEST MAGAZINE • 33