By Alaine Reichle

Alaine Reichle

‘Think of a person in your life who seems truly free. Who is it?’ was a question posed Sunday morning during the education hour at St. Luke Ann Arbor. From 9:45 A.M.-10:45 A.M. between services we have breakfast and classes for whoever is interested. One of the classes is called Taming the Lions and is lead by Byron Porisch our Youth Ministry Director. This Sunday’s Taming the Lions was devoted to speaking of freedom.

I was never a really rebellious teenager, but I went to a Lutheran school and Lutheran schools simply adore their rules and regulations. I am a person inclined towards piercings, tattoos, and unnatural colored hair. I stand out a little, I’m unique, and in a Lutheran school there wasn’t a huge place for me except in the art room. Some of the rules were unnecessary, and I can say that even now almost four years later, but some of them were there for a good reason and at the time my teenaged heart didn’t like to believe that.

My friends and I spent hours complaining, debating, and trying to skirt the rules. The first two years of our high school career was spent fretting over some silly little words in the student handbook. We emotionally exhausted ourselves over these things. Then, my junior year of high school I stopped caring about taking what they ‘owed’ me and trying to get every scrap of freedom I could from them. Those last two years were amazing, because I was finally free. Ironic, isn’t it? I spent two years of my life wasting my time and energy trying to be free. I would walk through school wearing a piece of prohibited jewelry constantly watching my back, looking out for when I could be caught, wondering when and if I was going to get sent to the office. The fear and anticipation I carried with me all day kept me in chains, I wasn’t free at all. I was paranoid about being caught.

That’s the way of things; we fight and fight trying to look out for ourselves, thinking people owe us because we had a hard childhood, or because they have more than we do, or even just because. We don’t take responsibility and own up to our actions. When will we finally say, ‘this is my life, and I’m going to take hold of it’. When will we stop making excuses? In high school I had to let go of the struggle to be free. I had to learn to respect authority, to follow the rules even if I didn’t like them, to take responsibility for my own actions no matter the excuses [and I always had excuses]. After all of that, after the two years of struggle, when I finally let go and realized I need to pick my battles, that some things shouldn’t be fought, that every day wasn’t a battle to be won, me against them. After those lessons I was finally free. I bought different jewelry to wear, I worked with my teachers, and I found solace in being responsible for my life.

It’s like that with God. Luke 17:33 Says that, ‘Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.’ Only when we let go of our lives, when we stop struggling to be good enough, when we accept grace and forgiveness for our sins are we free. There are battles to be fought, and rules to be broken, and I believe God will show us which ones, but until then God has put certain people in authority over us for a reason. Laws exist to help us. God is a loving, compassionate man who wants the best for His children. Sin makes this world dangerous, and God gave us the ultimate freedom of choice. Because of those choices and sin, because of that danger there are rules. We just need to trust that He knows best even if our restless hearts want to believe otherwise.

Alaine Reichle is the Family Life Intern at St. Luke Ann Arbor, she works with programs for Jr. and Sr. High students such as the Wednesday Night Live Bible Study, Confirmation sessions, and Sunday morning education classes. Alaine can be contacted at areichle@stlukeaa.org.