The musings of Peter

isn’t free

The Edges of Freedom: A Reflection on Choice, Power, and Grace

I recently listened to a series of talks on freedom. As I listened, I was struck not by what was said, but by what was left out — by how narrow the conversation often is. Freedom was reduced to the ability to choose between options: chocolate or vanilla, this team or that one, this song or that ideology. But as I sat with it, a question pressed deeper into me: What is the value of a choice if I have no power to effectuate its outcome?

Yes, I can choose my favorite ice cream flavor. But I am limited to what is in the freezer. I can choose a favorite song, a political party, even a spouse — but always from what already exists. Unless I have the ability to create, my choices remain confined to what already is.

And even our “free choices” are rarely free from influence. Most are shaped — consciously or not — by what we perceive to be true, useful, or good. Decisions are made in light of experience, upbringing, instinct, and information. But once a decision is made, something deeper begins to happen: we tend to make future decisions in light of our past ones.

This is why the charitable person often becomes more charitable — they interpret the world through a growing sense of grace. And the impure person often becomes more impure — they normalize their desires and rationalize their path. In religious terms, sin begets sin, unless the heart is turned. Once you choose a master, that master begins to shape you — and demand more.

So yes, freedom may apply to the moment of choice, where options exist — but you cannot freely choose something that does not exist or cannot exist. A person may choose to believe in something that is objectively false — for instance, that the earth is flat — and exercise that freedom to the fullest. But that choice is not true freedom, it is delusion dressed as autonomy.

When we begin to build identities, ideologies, and moral systems around things that are unmoored from reality, we are no longer just making choices — we are attempting to create reality itself. We step out of the role of human and attempt to take on the role of God.

The one who insists the earth is flat not only rejects a fact, but often condemns the entire structure of knowledge that reveals the truth. All science becomes heresy. In that person’s mind, they have become the authority. This is the shadow side of human freedom: the temptation to use it to elevate ourselves above truth, and by extension, above God.

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man…”
— Romans 1:22–23

This is why true freedom must be grounded in truth. Jesus said:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
— John 8:32

And just a few verses later, He clarifies:

“Everyone who sins is a slave to sin… So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
— John 8:34,36

This is the heart of it: Freedom without truth is slavery in disguise. Freedom without humility becomes rebellion. Freedom without grace becomes vanity.

This brings us to our modern moment. There is constant discussion today about how social media saps our freedom — how we become enslaved to the approval of the masses, and how destructive that dependence is. The common solution offered is to ignore public opinion, to be “free of the opinions of others.”

But this oversimplifies the problem. If I am a terrible singer and I post a video of myself singing, and it receives hundreds of comments telling me I’m awful — ignoring those comments doesn’t make me a better singer. On the other hand, if I am slim and people comment that I am fat, their comments do not alter the truth of my physical condition.

The real issue is not the comments. It’s why I posted at all. Why did I offer myself up for judgment? Why do I need to be seen, affirmed, liked? This is not a question of social media alone — it is a question of narcissism. We have nurtured a society where narcissistic attitudes have taken deep root — so deep that we now require help in managing our own vanities.

Freedom, in this context, comes not from silencing critics or ignoring negative feedback, but from stepping out of the role of center-stage. Freedom comes when we choose not to be the center of the world. If I am in a boat and the water below is teeming with hungry sharks, and I choose to jump in — the question is not Why did the sharks eat me? The question is Why did I jump in?

When we make free choices, we are also freely choosing their consequences. And here lies a deeper truth: freedom, in its truest sense, belongs to God alone — for only He is omniscient, omnipotent, and unbound. For us, to choose freely is to accept what we do not control — to say yes not only to the action, but to all that follows.

Freedom is not the power to shape reality to our liking. It is the humility to live rightly within a reality we did not make.

In that, and only in that, we are free indeed