Old lessons, new application

Life is a consistently evolving maze of lessons to be learned.  I am only 27 years old, and while people tell me that I am more mature than that number suggests, I have a life time of lessons to learn.  Never has this been more real to me than in the past few weeks.  My wife, Janel (you can follow her journey via her blog - covingtonmomof2.blogspot.com  - BTW, Janel is an amazing writer; if you are reading my blog, you will soon find out that I am not), has started a journey of changing her lifestyle around food.  I am proud to say that she has lost over 30 pounds since February 1st, but her journey has put me under a lot of conviction about my relationship with food and has led to conviction is many areas of my life.  More on those topics in future posts.

Today was my "off" day from work.  I do not know how "off" pressure washing the entire house, 2 loads of laundry, vacuuming, getting 2 children ready for school and then picking them up really is - but I digress.  Anyway,  I had to go into my store this morning to put in an order (I know, sorry Janel), and life hit me with an old lesson.

Several years ago, a wise person told me that rules and laws were not put in place to oppress me, but to give me freedom.  Can anyone say oxymoron?  I never really understood what that meant - until today. Let me try to explain.  While at the store, it was very apparent that one of my workers was not in proper uniform which has become a major emphasis with the re-branding of my company.  Before I continue, this worker is one of my favorite.  He works hard, has a great sense of humor, and does his job well.  But the topic of uniform is his Achilles heel.  I had no choice to have a conversation, and it was in the midst of this talk that I finally learn the lesson from so many years ago.

Freedom to be myself comes from the boundaries that are set on my life, and those boundaries are in place to keep me safe and happy.  State law says that I can go 70 mph on I-12. Seventy-five mph will get me a ticket,  45 mph will get me a lot of dirty looks, but driving 70 mph with music blasting and the windows down on a gorgeous day is plenty of freedom for me.  Rules, whether they be from work, home, government, family, or whatever, are not meant to keep me locked down and living in fear, but to give me choices and ultimately live my life that way I want to.  Lets take this back to Adam.  God put Adam and Eve in the garden at the beginning of the world and told them they could do what every they wanted.  Eat, drink, and play were all at their fingertips with one rule - do not eat from this one tree.  God didn't put this one rule in place to be a jerk (no comments from my non-religious friends out there), he did it to keep them safe from the dangers that the one tree held.  Adam and Eve had freedom because of the rule in their lives.

Heres the lesson in short - Life is all about perspective.  If you focus on the rules, you get bogged down in what you "can't" do, but if you know the rules but focus on the freedom that gives you - life is awesome!  Like I told my employee today, you can look at the uniform policy and say "I can't wear my beach shorts to work" or you can be like Will Smith in "Men in Black" and say "the difference between you and me - I make this look good."

Enjoy your freedom

- Jonathan