The Will to be Free

The freedom we believe we have is an illusion, albeit a necessary one. It is an illusion through which we may become truly free (to paraphrase Nigerian writer Ben Okri), if only we woke up. "Awake, awake, put on strength" (Isa 51:9, 2 Neph 8:9). What we have is a potential to be free. 

Our potential for freedom is a divine gift. If we do not develop this gift we remain prisoners of the world, unable to truly love. Love can only be a truly free gift, without expectations, without caveats, without conditions. To love is to realize our divinity.

That we are not yet truly free beings means that we are mostly driven by that which is unconscious or semi-conscious in us. Even in our normal everyday thinking, we are hardly conscious of the process of thinking, but only the result or the object of our thinking. This is normal. We may, in hindsight review how we have thought and say ‘it was logical’, but we never generally are conscious of thinking while we are thinking: our attention is never directed toward itself.

In the LDS Church we are fond of referring to ‘promptings of the spirit’ or ‘feeling the spirit’ but in all honesty, we (generally - I'm sure some do) really have no idea where these promptings or feelings come from, let alone have absolute certainty who or what is behind them. Sure, we may have an idea that we have been taught, and of course, these feelings may well be something Good, but still, we are not absolutely certain of this with the same certainty and clarity we have of some mathematical concepts for example.  My point is, that unless we are conscious of our soul-processes (and thinking, feeling, and will belong there) then we are not free. For we are unconscious or only semi-conscious of where our thoughts, feelings, or will impulses arise.

One purpose of us being in this world is for us to realize our freedom; we are no more born free than we are born with a law degree. We have to earn it. We are born with a potential; we have to exert our will to be free. The Lord gave us this potential, this seed. Through our efforts, we can water and nurture this seed.  But this requires us to delve beneath the surface of that which enters our consciousness as thoughts, and feelings etc.  It is the surface and the sediments floating on it, that we are normally conscious of – hardly ever the undercurrents. Unless we learn to delve into this hitherto unseen realm, will we forever remain captive to that which we do not see.