TO FULLY enjoy the blessings of liberty, one must also embrace the twin of liberty - LIMITATIONS. I realize that the two are inseparable, to demand liberty without accepting limitations is not liberty at all! It’s because of the boundaries that the uniqueness of liberty is fully enjoyed.
We are all experiencing a new normal nowadays, because of the Covid-19 pandemic we are being restricted by the government, for this time the usual liberties we enjoy are not temporarily restrained. Like mobility, gathering for worship and other common liberties we enjoy. The limitations of these liberties are timely lessons to really value the many things we have taken for granted. Slowly it begins to sink in that we are not really in charge of everything, that life is short, and that the powerful are really powerless.
In fact, we all need to bring ourselves to a corner so we can sift all the information that we got into a concrete transformation of the heart. Speaking of limitations, it’s good to limit the information that we allow to come in so we will not miss the substance of it. The liberty to know is now made meaningful by the reality that we cannot know everything.
Liberty invites mastery of many things, explore, discover, an adventure of a lifetime yet it takes the presence of limitations to remind us of mystery over mastery. Limitations stop our insatiable ambition to be God. Human being’s dignity is founded in liberty, but being human means embracing limitations. In our exercise of freedom, we become responsible free people. The enhance community quarantine restricted our movements, it has also brought along a timely awakening of what a community is, and how we need to belong to one.
The limitation to our liberties somehow brings a timely awakening that there are many things in life bigger than our selves. There are professions like the medical front liners, health workers, and government enforcers, the barangay leaders have sacrificed a lot for the good of many! Liberty is guided by limitations to thread the path of accountability and responsibility to the larger community.
It looks like today’s limitations are taking the center stage more than liberty, let’s all give this statue of limitation a chance to teach us how to value the liberties we have. Our freedom is connected to the whole welfare of the community. Limitations are cruel and painful and yet they are now an inevitable reminder that freedom ends where the other person’s nose begins. Freedom is never absolute; freedom is worth fighting for under the guidance of human limitations. Let us view freedom not with the lens of our biases rather view it as a God-given dignity as human beings.
Let these restrictions be a timely fire that flames our passion for freedom as a human being, and being human let us embrace the reality and beauty of having limitations. How do you reconcile liberty and limitations?
Well, I realize you don’t need to reconcile friends. I write straight from my heart who is passionate about freedom and humbled by the fact that so many sacrificed so I have this freedom now. This freedom is so connected to the humbling presence of limitations, we need both. Liberty and limitations not liberty versus limitations.