Well, I’ll finish the story I started yesterday (about hitting the car in the parking lot). I first left a note on the car in case the owner came out, then I went inside to see if I could find the owner. I did. She plus a couple of witnesses came out to see what I had done. They were all real nice. Oh, “it’s nothing” kind of thing. But you see, I knew it was something. I chipped paint about the size of my thumb. Not much but it was on a new car. I knew if she were to trade the car that day, someone would make a big case out of it being “damaged.” She said she had no plans to do anything like that so it wouldn’t matter in the long run. But going on was outside the boundary for me. A gave her a hundred dollar bill. It was enough to sooth my conscience but it still would not have covered a “new car” spot paint job. Our boundaries overlapped so it didn’t ruin the day for either of us. (It happened to me later also. This time the woman ripped me out for $400 and her car was not nearly as new.)

About the guy in the pickup who yelled at me? I don’t know what his boundary was for himself but he certainly had one for me! I think too many folks have tighter boundaries for others than they have for themselves.

So how about an “I did it my way” outlook on life? It’s not for me. I prefer the freedom plan given in the Bible, John 8:31. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Verse 36: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin… So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Well, I certainly don’t want to be a slave to sin. But I’m not sufficient on my own, I need to belong to somebody. So I rejoice that I am a free citizen of this great land, but I am a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s where real freedom exists!

How about a big hurrah for an America that’s free. And a joyful thanks that we have enough citizens who are living in boundaries that will help keep her that way: tax-paying, law-abiding, prayer-praying, defense-waging, neighbor-loving, God-honoring citizens of the United States of America.

We must work to keep her that way!

And may you know the joy of being a bond-servant of Jesus Christ.