Plant With Purpose Freedom Parade

By Aly Lewis

I don’t usually like to talk about freedom. I’m more of an interdependent (not to be confused with codependent) type of philosophizer. Not that I don’t like freedom; I’m just more apt to find myself exasperated with the individualistic, isolated, and often disconnected culture in which I live. More often than not, I overcompensate by focusing entirely on our inevitable and undeniable interconnectedness—both with each other and with our environment. But this week I’m putting aside my desire to flaunt my counter-cultural dependency ideas in order to take a deeper look at freedom and what that means in our lives as Americans, as Christians, and as people living in this interconnected world.

As humans we all feel trapped sometimes. We get caught in toxic cycles of our own design and vicious cycles far beyond our control. We become paralyzed, imprisoned by real or perceived barriers from which we can see no readily accessible escape route or hope of a better day. As much as I’m enamored with the idea of interdependency and community and sharing, freedom is a good thing, a vital thing, a Godly thing. Freedom is the ability to choose, to live, to love.

In honor of the Fourth of July, this week we’ll be touching on different aspects of freedom—political freedom, economic freedom, spiritual freedom. We’ll talk about the ways Plant With Purpose works to bring freedom to rural farmers trapped in vicious cycles of poverty and deforestation. We’ll talk about the ways we can work toward greater freedom in our own lives. We may even bring out the sparklers and barbecue to celebrate Burundian Independence Day (which, by the way, is July 1^st).

So pick up those visors and water bottle misters and join us for our week long Freedom Parade.