Bored by Freedom

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Deuteronomy 15:15

Every spring, as warm weather approaches, I promise myself that I will run or bike outside every day. When the weather does turn, I keep my promise for a few weeks, but by June, the monotony of nice weather has set in and my passion fades. I may even start to fondly reminisce about snow. I am prone to boredom.

I do this with my recovery and faith as well. Once, I could not imagine how I was going to sleep without pills. Then, when I found freedom, I was ecstatic. Recovery was fantastic, and I was excited for it. Routine becomes boring though and I forget the misery of being enslaved. It’s not that I want to go back, I just forget to be thankful for recovery and freedom.

Not everyone is as easily bored as I am, but most of us do this to some extent. We go about our daily lives without ever really thanking God for what He has done for us. We become accustomed to routine and we just don’t take time for gratitude.

Moses must have encountered this with the Israelites. In today’s passage, he insisted that the Israelites take time to remember what God had done for them. After being set free from Egypt, they actually grew tired of their freedom and reminisced about returning to slavery. In their lack of gratitude, they wandered from God and risked losing their freedom.

This is the danger for us. We are not to wallow in the past, but we must remember where we have been and what God has done for us. We must understand that return to slavery is possible and we must acknowledge that we still have struggles. Forgetting what God has done is the surest way to return to our misery.

In remembering what God has done for us, we remain grateful and we guard against repeating the mistakes of the past. Thank you, God, for freedom!