Freedom!

It seemed to me that everywhere I turned; in the news which filled the media and in life situations I encountered every day, I met people crying out for freedom.  Many were unable to share the key to all freedom  -  Christ who is the truth  - who sets us all free ..
These prayers came to mind ...
 
 
 I am a prisoner, Lord,
behind the razor-wire of contemporary living:
the ceaseless winking of the clock;
the bulging diary's tentacles;
embraced by family commitments;
snagged with physical limitations.
 
Yet I am free:
free to breathe clean air;
free to think and speak, to care and love;
free to inhale your life-giving Spirit.
 
Help me put my hands through the wire
to pass out my freedom
to the people in the cell next door.
 
  
Lord, Jesus Christ, you teach us freedom comes at a price.
By your life, death and living again
you have given us freedom
which no prison can take from us.
Show us how to live, work and speak for freedom
for all who cower before military powers;
for those squeezed in the tightening grip of hunger and disease.
Help us so to cherish our freedom as to be ready to sacrifice for their release.
  
 
I walked through a hospital ward today,
and prayed for prison bars to fall away
from minds depressed,
encircled by an ever prevalent gloom;
afraid of unseen futures;
paralysed by lost self-esteem;
angry with helplessness.
Lord, help me share my freedom, if only by
a word of comfort,
a look of compassion,
a silent, often repeated prayer
to you.