My violin lesion was cut short yesterday as I stopped mid note and asked the question “other than to “help out,” why on earth are you going to Africa?”

My violin teacher is leaving this fall on missions to Africa. For those readers that don’t know what missions are, it’s a group of people or one person sent to a foreign land by a religious organization (usually a Christian organization) to spread its faith or provide educational, medical, and other assistance.
I wouldn’t call it a mission trip because she is going for 2 years. She is pretty much becoming a citizen.

One of her biggest reasons for leaving she said is to escape consumerism, which, I can’t blame her for. Our country is a land where even the most dire in need have it 10 times better than most in third world countries.

It’s interesting; our country has so much, others have so little. Why?

I am sure some historian or economist could rattle off to me all the implications that led us to where we are financially but many people believe that God has provided this lavish life that we have. Because we follow God (the correct God) he, in return, has blessed us.

Did He? I would like to think no, at least to a certain extent.

Our county isn’t as blessed as much as it is profitable. We know how to make money.

Let me just throw this thought out there and you can eat me up later about it. I don’t know if I agree with this, yet, I’m just thinking aloud.

North Americans had their internal wars, their slavery and their rebellions. In the end, the outcome was to work together. People found (or were forced to believe) it better to suppress their rights, thoughts and beliefs in order to work together. In order to become “free” they traded in their freedom. They unified…. Unified in…. God?

Looking at other areas in the world, you don’t see this. People are living closely together, believing in different gods, having different opinions, different views and different morals. All of these streams are not willing to mainstream for the better of their nation.
Their gods give them the right and the authority to act out.

The end result? Wars, rebellions, murders, chaos…….. freedom?

In the early Christian church, thinking differently and expressing those differences was encouraged, even if death was the outcome for their actions.
The church grew the most when persecuted.

So what’s better? A country working together for the benefit of themselves to obtain more wealth and in the meantime sacrificing their freedoms (and undermining everyone else around them) or living in a world of chaos, speaking up for your beliefs and preparing to die to voice it?

Who is freer?