You Can’t Hide From Every Storm and Expect to Be Free

Lessons learned from observing the passive among us.

This personal newsletter of mine isn’t directly about politics, in that I’m not trying to persuade anyone to adopt my political points of view. Here, I ask only that you can explain and defend all of the things you believe. The general theme at The Way of the Free Man is contained right there in the title – freedom.

Many things go into the pursuit of life, liberty, and freedom, and seizing all three requires an active outlook on life – not a passive one. That is why, when I saw the following post on SubStack Notes earlier this week, my blood boiled:

The Bible commands man to have nothing in his life taking the place of God, who must rank first among priorities for a Christian. Indeed, love the Lord your God is the greatest commandment. Scripture does not command men to disengage from government; in fact, the Apostle Paul used his knowledge of Roman citizenship to his advantage to insist on due process for himself, and Daniel expertly maneuvered ancient Babylon and the wrath of a king by knowing what he was doing. There is no commandment to become voluntary cannon fodder to be found in Scripture.

I’m sure Ms. Pomfret is a fine person and willing to bend over backward to help those in need, at least from what I can glean from her post. Most of what she says in it is dead on the money, especially regarding caring for those in your sphere of influence and seeking to be at peace in life.

We were not put here to simply look at streams, snuggle puppies, and avoid storms indefinitely; it is irresponsible to complain about the world today, with nearly every government, institution, university, media network, and pillar of entertainment run by those with abhor Godly values and seek to impose upon the world their vision for what will only lead to the ruin of all mankind. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians does not tell them to bow out of anything to do with ugliness and challenges; while he is not addressing the government as the force to oppose, his guidance was:

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11 (NIV)

When political forces deprive Americans (or people of any nationality) of their God-given, natural rights, or compel them to fight in unjust wars, confiscate their lands and money, disarm them, and promote infanticide, they are engaging in fruitless deeds of darkness. When the entry of violent criminals into a nation is tolerated by government officials, which then brings suffering and loss of life to the host population, those are again deeds of darkness.

Going away to a mountaintop to hide sounds peaceful, but it does not serve to bring peace to society. It prolongs misery, suffering, and deeds of darkness, and if Christians aren’t willing to step up to the plate with what they believe are changed hearts stamped with the Spirit of God, then who will be dictating to future generations what truth is?

Not Christians.

The faith I hold isn’t fire insurance – it’s freedom from fear of dying while pursuing the call of freedom. God made man in His image. Man, therefore, has dignity and is thus afforded natural rights. We are to value those things, spread the light of freedom to the dark corners of the world, and in doing so, stare down opponents and danger.

One of my favorite quotes on this matter is from America’s second president, John Adams:

"I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."

If you have faith, stop hiding it and yourself! Get out there and make a difference.

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Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. He is intent on living life as fully as possible, taking adventures, and finding new ways to appreciate the road less traveled in pursuit of Freedom.