Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 39. I am Free… to approach God with Confidence (Jesus rescued me from my captors)

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Hello human.

On the 4^th day of July, we celebrate our country’s freedom. I have extended family members who served in the military, including a vivacious woman who is an ER nurse in the Navy. But my only direct experience with the military is a connection that happened when I was 17 years old. In my high school hometown.

Meet John Dunn. Lieutenant Colonel Dunn was interned as a Prisoner of War in Southeast Asia after he was captured in South Vietnam on March 18, 1968, at just 25 years old. Dunn was held until his release on February 12, 1973. I was a senior in high school.

As part of my high school dance team, I co-choregraphed a tribute to John Dunn to celebrate his homecoming as a POW for five years in Vietnam. It was my final year in high school nestled into that amazing decade:  The 70’s. I cannot remember how this came to be, but we performed the tribute at an NJCAA Basketball Tournament with a packed house… and John Dunn came. As I remember, only a few days after being released to return to the United States.

I saved the feature article about him and, surprisingly, our dance team formations for the 4-minute performance, detailing dancer placement on the basketball court, and how we transitioned to the next formation. It was clearly important to me, but like so many things in my life, I didn’t fully understand to what depth without more maturity than I had at the time. I didn’t know much about my love of country then. But I was a strong cheerleader for the courage of the human heart.

Dunn was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the Vietnam War. His Silver Star citation as a Prisoner of War, described his experience:

“…for gallantry in action and heroism involving voluntary risk of life while serving as a Prisoner of War during May 1968. Ignoring international agreements on treatment of prisoners of war, the Viet Cong resorted to a routine of mental and physical cruelties including withholding of medical treatment and food, for the purpose of obtaining military information, biographical data, and propaganda material detrimental to the United States. During the latter part of May 1968, Captain Dunn was undergoing intense interrogation for the purpose of obtaining military information. Even though he was forced to live in a filthy pit, chained by the ankle like an animal, given only enough to eat to sustain life, severely beaten, and his life threatened, Captain Dunn would not give the requested information. After being refused food and water for three days, he still refused to give information. At midnight on the third day he was tied, blindfolded, taken to the jungle, placed on his knees and an AK-47 rifle placed to his head and told that he had 60 seconds in which to give them the desired information. At this time, he agreed to their demands, but gave them false and distorted information, hoping for enough time to regroup his thoughts. Instead, he was again given ten minutes to live and, again, he refused to give additional information. Shortly after this last threat, he was returned to his bunker and camp routine was restored. Despite extremely harsh conditions, he never wavered in his devotion and loyalty to God, country, and fellow prisoners. The heroism displayed by Captain Dunn reflects great credit upon himself, his family, and the United States Army.”

John Dunn retired in 1988 as a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. But my memory of him is as if it happened yesterday.

The obvious takeaways are how he stood strong, and true to his convictions, regardless of the consequence. He remained loyal to God, country, and fellow prisoners. He began with intense interrogations, stood his ground, kept his bearings as his life hung in the balance, then spent five years in brutal, soul-weary conditions. And that whole time, his heart was free. His country was free.

John Dunn’s heart was not in bondage… so that is my question, my way to something deeper.

What Freedom Is

It is up to me to decide what keeps me in bondage, human bondage, heart bondage, during my earthly walk.

Paul says in,

2 Corinthians 3:17,

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Freedom is “liberty” – the Greek word in the context of this verse means – liberty from Jewish errors so blinding the mental vision that it does not discern the majesty of Christ.

 

It’s easy to look at the errors of the Jewish people, to have Jesus walking amongst them, fulfilling prophesy, yet not actually see Him, to miss who he was. But I can claim errors of my own that blind me from seeing the majesty of what He did for me.

Another definition of freedom from the Greek language is this:  being free from the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires. Sign me up.

1 Corinthians 10:29

29 I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience?

This verse garners a lot of commentary. What I think Paul is saying, is that it is not about the food he mentions in previous verses, it is about the conscience. We have the freedom to eat idol food, but we should restrict our own freedom for the sake of another person’s conscience. That we are free to make that choice for the greater spiritual purpose of serving each other.

What brings deeper clarity in this verse for me is yet another Greek definition to help us. In this verse, Paul defines “freedom” as “the liberty to do or to omit things having no relation to salvation.” For me, this is the clearest distinction about what I gain when I apply my free will to living my life, free in Christ. To be free of anything that is not about and a consequence of my salvation. To be free from everything that is not Jesus.

Stand Firm

Galatians has been called “The Magna Carta of Christian Liberty.” This letter stirred the fires of the Protestant Reformation:  Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Curtis Vaughan, who said “few books have more profoundly influenced the minds of men, have so significantly shaped the course of human history, or continued to speak with such relevance to the deepest needs of modern life.”

It is as if Paul had traveled to 2023 and back when he wrote it. Read through Galatians during July.  I am.

Paul tells us, in the opening verse,

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

 

We were chained to sin, like John Dunn was chained at the ankle in a filthy pit.

We were spiritually hungry, like John Dunn who was barely sustained to see another day on POW rations.

We were severely beaten and threatened by the wages of sin, like John Dunn who was tortured by his captors.

Take a strong stand on this conviction… that Jesus will sustain you. Don’t give up the information that is your eternal life. Like John Dunn, who did not succumb to trading what he knew, to turn his back on his country to safe his earthly life.

I discovered a familiar scripture again. This happens to me a lot. It keeps my witness growing closer to the God who holds me.

Ephesians 3:12

12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Approaching God is the only point. It is the only journey. It is the reason for freedom. Jesus gave His life for me to be free from sin so I could be free to have access to His Father, the freedom to charge in on our God anytime, like we might have done as a child running into the house with news, a need, a shout of joy…

Right now, I am thinking a lot about freedom in Christ as being free to approach God with everything, because Jesus was loyal to His Father, and saved the life of every person, every fellow prisoner to sin.

I do have to ask myself:  What price do I pay, what sustenance do I bring to the table, like John Dunn. How am I blindfolded in my life, led to an unknown place, and diminishing spiritual outcome?

I love this country much like I love and care for my home. I am loyal in my own little life to protecting most importantly, its spiritual landscape, though I have no award citations. But Jesus does. I don’t really know much about the military, or that way of life. But I recognize courage in the actions of others. That kind of courage sets off fireworks in my heart.

Dunn’s citation said, “despite extremely harsh circumstances he remained unwavering.” I am seeking humility in my “unwavering” gratitude for what Jesus has given me freedom from.

Claim Independence in Christ

And, in response, I am investing my efforts on freedom to, freedom to do what? Get specific, get personal about what an independent heart in Christ does.

Claim independence, the divine kind.

In the God-breathed power of Ephesians 3:12, what does my approach to God “with freedom and confidence” look like, what does my prayer to God sound like, that is done boldly, openly, with the assurance of my Savior’s blood?

How does a woman who was born in Independence, Kansas raise the flag of freedom in Christ?

Episode 40.