Rules, Consequences, and Freedom

A variation of the all-too popular song from Frozen, Let It Go, was stuck in my head a short while ago, and when I came to the part that says "No right, No wrong, No rules for me, I'm free," I was reminded that I blogged about it two years ago. In that blog post, Let What Go?, I talked about how wrong that line was, and how dangerous is was that people were being told that abandoning moral accountability would lead to freedom. Then I thought about how much my beliefs had changed since then.

I love freedom, but there are rules. Whether they're fair or not and whether you like them or not doesn't matter. The laws of the universe are immutable, and their consequences are fixed. Understanding them and making choices accordingly is an excellent and wise idea. Complaining about them isn't. I may not like all the rules I'm asked to keep, but I don't have to like them. I just have to keep them, or there will be consequences. Sometimes, breaking a rule is worth the consequences, as is the case when breaking a lower law when that's necessary to keep a higher law, but there are always consequences, and even the best blog post about the merits of freedom won't change the fact that we all still have to follow the rules.

I'm starting to wonder how I should define freedom. Theoretically, we all have the freedom to do whatever we want, but I've frequently spoken about how severe consequences limit our freedom. However, knowing about these consequences actually enhances our ability to choose our own path, because we're able to see where our paths lead us. We all know that we can go anywhere we want in life. Knowing about consequences teaches us how to get there.

As my mother reminded me in a comment to my last blog post, the commandments are often given as guideposts, meant to warn us of pitfalls we would rather avoid. A sign that says "Sharks! No Swimming!" can protect us from the potentially fatal injuries we might have sustained if we had simply ignored the sign and done whatever we wanted to do.

Naturally, some rules are less beneficial than that, so we must be wise in deciding what rules we're going to obey and which people we're going to follow, but when it comes to God's laws, we can trust that He's not just trying to boss us around. He's trying to show us the way to happiness.

Some might argue that freedom is better than happiness or that freedom also grants happiness, but I would encourage them to consider the short- and long-term consequences of their actions. We are all free to choose what we do, but we are not free to decide what happens as a result of what we do. Certain actions cause certain results, and some outcomes require certain actions. Just as we must consult a map in order to navigate to a destination, we must also consider the consequences of our options in order to find out how to get the outcome we want.

Rules are a fact of life, and we can't afford to ignore them. It's much wiser to accept the fact that our actions have consequences and use that knowledge to choose actions that will give us the outcomes we want. It's true that, if you don't care what outcome you want, there are no right or wrong answers. But if we want the freedom and happiness God offers us, we're going to have to learn, accept, and choose to follow the rules.