https://wsharing.com/WS-NLE-190704-ID.htm#ID2019

God's peace,

william

John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Freedom can be a tricky business. Just because you are free to choose any path you wish, not every path you choose is beneficial to your wellbeing in the bigger picture. Donna's son Chad was very physically strong. He was quite possibly the hardest working male I have ever met. He was fiercely independent, and adamant about his freedom to choose for himself. He was highly opinionated. 

As with most of us, Chad's freedom allowed him to make a lot of poor choices in life. Still, he always seemed to manage to bounce back from them, and start an ascent until something would grab hold of his emotions. Then, if he gave free reign to them, a downward spiral would ensue. 

Many in the family suspected he had mental issues which needed addressing. As a person who has been hospitalized twice in my life for mental conditions, and deals with on again off again basic depression, I would think he might have benefited from some professional assistance. Friends have recently shared how they helped Chad through troubled times. As freedom allows, he chose not to seek medical help. Both meager resources, and a lack of trust, made such a decision easier. 

In the past weeks, the accumulation of the free will choices we all get to make, caught up with Chad. After his death, we learned he had some weeks back received a head injury while coming off a job on Mackinac Island. A friend, and co-worker, tried to get him to seek treatment, but Chad freely chose not too, in spite of severe headaches. In the ensuing few weeks, a conservative religious perspective blended into the process spilling out in texts, phone calls, and signs on his property, both worrying, and frightening, family members, and friends. 

Tuesday morning, Chad's freedom to choose started working big time against him. When county deputies tried to serve a court order for psychological evaluation, Chad refused to come out. When more officers returned later with a warrant, after learning of a threat he had made to a neighbor that morning, Chad refused to surrender himself. Freedom of choice was now working against him. Things escalated. When officers finally broke down the door, things got worse. When a taser did not stop Chad, even his own physical strength was now working against him. In the end, Chad was shot to death. There is no way to know how Chad was perceiving what was going on. But, freedom is a tricky business. Everybody's freedom. More people than Chad were exercising their God given right to choose on his final day. All of us choose every day. Choices come with consequences. 

"If you recognize that all of your inner hurts are caused by your own wrong actions
 or your own wrong reactions or your own wrong inaction,
 then you will stop hurting yourself."

- Peace Pilgrim

I believe that quote holds true for individuals, but also in groups, and as a country. We have a lot of inner hurts in this land of inalienable rights. The freedom to choose to do nothing is still a choice. One for which we must hold ourselves accountable. A counselor told me that most law enforcement personnel get virtually no special training in dealing with mental issues. We can, of course, point fingers at them, but we, as a culture, are free to choose priorities, take positive action, or make inaction our choice. This newsletter was originally intended to discuss a number of issues we face in our culture. I have been reemphasizing to our board that teaching Christians to focus on the question "what would Jesus do if He were me?" would have an amazing effect on our culture. And, our Peace Pilgrim materials can do the same for anyone, regardless of their beliefs. 
 

Freedom. Free will. Pro-choice. Individual rights. They all have a nice sound to them. Chad's son, Jakob, is 19 years old. Fresh into adulthood, as the closest living heir, he has received the legal authority to make all decisions regarding his dad's body and possessions. He has enlisted help, as he learns that freedom to make choices come with great responsibility attached to it. I pray we all learn this. For I believe there is truly a much bigger picture of reality than most of us care to take seriously, and consequences for how well we choose to exercise our God given freedom. 

I am going to leave three images and poems from the last Independence Day newsletter in this one. I am including only one email. Elaine Desing, sister of Paul Pretzlaff, also died recently. Paul was one of the three founders of the Teaching & Sharing Centers. He put me on Elaine's email list, and I have been ever grateful for it. Her wisdom and insights made her one of a handful of emails that I always tried to find time to open and read. Two more notes. The first image of this newsletter is my picture of the week I uploaded this morning. If you would like a copy without the text, you can find it there until July 10, 2019. Also, I did not go into a great amount of detail regarding Chad's death as it is online in many places. Since the incident involved a law enforcement officer killing someone, the State Police were called in to investigate, and they have now released the details to the press. It was a very long day for us in Gaylord on Tuesday, awaiting information. 
 

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"Tolerance has become militantly intolerant."

- Kevin DeYoung 

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