Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk-in-docs.
Welcome back to another instalment of our Lent 2026 series,
Through the Wilderness,
Still Held,
As we walk through John's Gospel towards Easter,
Today,
Day 24.
And today we're going to sit with a conversation from John's Gospel in chapter 8 verses 31 to 36,
Where we find Jesus speaking to people who already believe in him and they make a confident claim.
They say,
We've never been slaves to anyone.
It's such a human response,
Isn't it?
We're free,
We're fine,
Nothing has a hold on us.
You can just imagine Jesus simply smiling and then widening their horizon.
He begins to speak of a deeper freedom,
A freedom that's not about external status or history or appearances.
And he gently suggests to them that bondage can be interior.
And that's where today's reflection asks for courage.
So as we begin,
I advise you to take a deep breath in and out.
Allow yourself to settle softly,
To fully arrive in this moment,
And to be here and present without judgment.
Simply listening and held in the arms of God.
Now,
Jesus points out in this passage that there's forms of captivity that can look like competence.
There's patterns that can look like personality.
That sometimes fear can sound like prudence and that there are narratives we repeat so often that they feel like truth.
Jesus says,
Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin,
But if the Son makes you free,
You will be free indeed.
This is a freedom that goes right down to the roots.
You might be saying,
Well,
What's the unsettling part?
Well,
The reality is that when we find true freedom,
It can feel incredibly destabilizing at first.
Because when something loosens,
We feel the tension that was always there.
When an attachment is exposed,
We notice how tightly we've been holding onto something.
Freedom reveals where we've been tethered.
So just gently ask yourself,
Where do I instinctively insist I'm fine?
Are there places within you that you defend rather than explore,
Or where you rush to reassure yourself that everything's okay and nothing needs to change.
Just let the answer to that question sit with you.
Don't force it,
But allow it to sit.
I mean,
The truth is,
Freedom is rarely a dramatic escape.
It's rarely a door flung open and with a sudden light flooding in.
More often,
Discovering freedom is like a slow disentanglement,
An awkward untangling,
Thread by thread,
Habit by habit,
Reaction by reaction.
And this is what the wilderness teaches us.
Because in the wilderness,
Illusions of being self-sufficient fall away really,
Really quickly.
You discover what actually sustains you.
You discover what you cling to.
You discover what you fear losing.
But you also discover that you're held.
Liberation generally unfolds gradually.
Think about Egypt and how the Israelites left.
And for the first little bit,
They weren't thinking like free people at all.
Their bodies were out,
But their imaginations took a lot longer.
This is why there's so many commandments,
And laws.
Because what was trying to be done was to untangle the Israelite people from the enslavement that had been placed in their psyche over 400 years,
Five or six generations.
So if you notice that some part of you is still like an old script,
That reactions often are automatic to certain things,
Or there's fears that quietly limit your choices,
Just know that this isn't failure.
It's simply where freedom is still unfolding.
Let's pause for a moment and just imagine Jesus speaking to you.
Not accusing,
But inviting.
Saying to you,
If you remain in my word,
You will know the truth,
And the truth will make you free.
There's that word again.
Remain.
Stay.
Abide.
You see,
Freedom grows through relationship.
Steady presence with the one who is already free.
So you might ask yourself,
What habits quietly limit your freedom?
Perhaps it's the need to be right,
Or to be seen in a particular way.
Maybe you're trying to avoid discomfort,
Or perhaps the story that you have to manage everything by yourself.
Just notice what comes up there.
And then ask,
What might small,
Steady liberation look like?
One loosened grip.
One honest conversation.
One softened reaction.
One moment of choosing trust over control.
Freedom that unsettles though,
Is still freedom.
Yeah,
It unsettles because it shifts the ground beneath the old certainties,
But beneath that shifting ground is something truer.
God would never invite you into chaos,
Friend.
God has invited you into a deeper reality.
A deeper reality that is spacious,
And wide,
And truly free.
With me now,
Just take one final,
Slow,
Deep breath.
And place your hand on your heart,
If it feels right for you to do it.
And whisper inwardly with me,
I'm willing to see what still binds me.
I'm willing to be made free.
Gently,
Gradually,
Truly,
Free.
And my friend,
May you have courage and kindness,
Sitting together with you now,
As you rest in that truth,
And carry that quiet honesty with you into the rest of your day,
Enveloped by grace,
Peace,
And love.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
