Let Freedom Ring

Randy, our director, was talking with the girls last night about times when it seems like "it'll never end." The context was regarding one girl who wants to go back home to live, but wants to do it now instead of waiting and wading through the hoops. We think she's about ready to go home, and will probably go in just a few weeks, but we have things that need to happen in order to make that happen.

I was thinking as he was talking about that, that we too have times in our lives when we think it "will never end." Whether it's kids growing up, interminable work, selling a house, getting ahead financially, or whatever it is, we at times find ourselves slogging through the pits of life in what seems to be an existence with no end in sight and no finish line in view.

I can't imagine what Paul must have been thinking as he sat in dungeon after dungeon, sometimes for years at a time, sometimes without even having seen a judge, all because of the Good News that God loves us.

I'm reminded of the song "Let Freedom Ring" written, I believe by Bill and Gloria Gaither. I repeat the lyrics below and commend them to you.

Deep within, the heart has always known that there was freedom,
Somehow breathed into the very soul alive.
The prisoner, the powerless, the saved have always known it;
There's something that keeps reaching for the sky.

Even life begins because a baby fights for freedom,
And songs we love to sing have freedom's theme.
Some have walked through fire and flood to find a place of freedom,
And some faced hell itself for freedom's dream.

Let freedom ring wherever minds know what it means to be in chains
Let freedom ring wherever hearts know pain,
Let freedom echo through the lonely streets where prisons have no key
We can be free and we can sing --- let freedom ring,

God built freedom into every fiber of creation,
And He meant for us to all be free and whole.
When my Lord bought freedom with the blood of His redemption,
His cross stamped pardon on my very soul.

I'll sing it out with every breath, I'll let the whole world hear it,
This hallelujah anthem of the free.
That iron bars and heavy chains can never hold us captive,
The Son has made us free and free indeed.

Let freedom ring down through the ages from a hill called Calvary,
Let freedom ring wherever hearts know pain.
Let freedom echo through the lonely streets where prisons have no key,
You can be free and you can sing let freedom ring.
Let freedom echo through the lonely streets where prisons have no key,
You can be free and you can sing let freedom ring,
You can be free and you can sing --- let freedom ring --- let freedom ring.