An Analogy of Freedom

We Want to be Healthy

My weight climbed fast and wouldn't come off. My back and legs hurt constantly. Inflammation, indigestion, sleepless nights, and blood-sugar crashes became normal. In my mid-twenties I was such a wreck that I left a job because it required too much walking—and between the pain and the pain meds, I couldn't function.

Some days I needed a cane.

I needed an explanation. My spinal injuries felt like the obvious culprit. Maybe it was something rarer—a disease, a genetic condition—anything that would account for how bad I felt.

After three spinal injuries, doctors and chiropractors confirmed through x-rays that my spine really did have serious issues. Bloodwork didn't reveal any other underlying causes. So I did what most of us do when we find a real problem: I treated it like the problem.

"If my spine is the reason," I told myself, "then this isn't really about my choices."

That was the quiet relief.
And it was a lie I didn't have to say out loud.

If the cause lived in the past—an injury, a condition—then I didn't have to face my diet in the present. I could keep doing what I'd always done and still feel justified. And the excuse was subtle because it was built on something true: my spine was a problem.

But a real complication can still become a false refuge.

After nearly two years of serious chiropractic care and physical therapy, many things improved. My mobility got better. Some symptoms eased. Yet the core issues—pain and inflammation—persisted. The "spine explanation" had been reduced, and my situation was still largely the same.

The missing piece was obvious, but I didn't want it to be: my diet.

I Was In Denial

I wasn't "in denial" the way people mean pretending nothing is wrong. My problems were visible.

My denial was simpler: I lived as though my food choices weren't connected to my condition. I could admit processed food was unhealthy while continuing to eat it daily.

Denial isn't always what you say.
It's what you keep doing.

And if I'm honest, the conflict wasn't confusion.
It was appetite.

I wanted to be healthy. My appointments, my specialists, my supplements—those looked like proof that I valued health. But I also craved the Standard American Diet: pizza, ice cream, soda, sweet tea—tacos at midnight.

And for breakfast.

I wanted the benefits of wellness without leaving the very things making me sick.

That's not ignorance.
That's double-mindedness.

We Want to be Righteous

We do something eerily similar with righteousness.

We want spiritual health, but we don't want to take responsibility for the choices that corrupt us. So we reach for explanations that contain a nugget of truth—the flesh, circumstances, other people, even the devil—and we use that truth as a shield from obedience.

Yes, we live in a perverse generation.
Yes, the flesh has weaknesses.
Yes, the devil seeks whom he may devour.

Those are real complications. But they are not the root of our bondage.

The root is simpler: we keep choosing what God forbids while expecting the results God promises.

So we stay busy. We add religious regimens and spiritual activities. We may even gain real benefits—knowledge, community, structure, a cleaner public image. But underneath it all, the same sin persists, and conscience keeps whispering what we already know: activity is not repentance.

And again, denial isn't pretending we have no problem. In many churches and homes, the problem is obvious. We can see bondage while people preach liberty. We can see sin that isn't mere weakness but practiced disobedience: gossip and greed, bitterness and malice, lust and adultery, gluttony and covetousness.

Those aren't "struggles."
They're choices.

We Are In Denial

The denial is this: living as though our disobedience has nothing to do with our lack of freedom.

Jesus tied freedom to continuing in His word (John 8:31–32). Titus says some "profess" God, yet deny Him by their works (Titus 1:16)—and then explains that grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and live righteously now (Titus 2:11–12).

Either your life denies God,
or grace trains your life to deny ungodliness.
You don't get both at once.

Denial.
Not in word, but by deeds.

Don't misunderstand: many truly want spiritual health. Their church attendance, prayers, service, and effort may look like proof. But they also want their indulgences—"respectable" compromises they refuse to put down.

They want freedom in Christ—without departing from the iniquity that put them into bondage.

Let's be honest:

Do you just want the benefits of freedom without having to shake up your life, or do you actually want to be made free no matter the cost?

More Reading:
I can't stop sinning
What is salvation?
Mostly Dead
God Lied