You Are Free to Be

The theology of my Substack.

I’ve been reworking this space (and this post) behind the scenes—its structure, its direction, even its heart. I knew I needed to write this post eventually, something I could come back to when I forget why I live to create, and something for you to understand what Free to Be is really about.

From Redeeming Exile to What We Once Were, and finally, Free to Be—I’ve taken my time with titles because names carry intent. They say something about who we are and where we’re going. But intent changes as we grow, and so has mine.

I started this Substack as a place to wrestle through my own story—to process grief, doubt, desire, and the shape of the Christian life when it’s not all tidy or easy. But it’s become more than that. More than just reflection. I don’t just want to write through things. I want to write toward something. And that something is freedom. Not freedom as we’ve been sold it—but a different kind. A deeper kind.

The Real Meaning of Freedom

Modern culture defines freedom as the ability to do whatever we want. Autonomy. Personal choice. No limits.

But ancient wisdom—and Scripture—defines it differently. J.P. Moreland writes that true freedom is “the power to do what we ought to do.” Freedom isn’t permission; it’s capacity. It’s not about breaking restraints—it’s about becoming fully who we were created to be.

In the classical tradition, freedom meant living according to your design. In this view, happiness wasn’t about comfort or consumption—it was about virtue. Eudaimonia. The good life. And that good life required endurance, patience, self-sacrifice. It required us to become the kind of people who could do what was right and beautiful and true, not just what was easy or instinctual.

That’s a far cry from the version of freedom most of us have inherited—where happiness is getting what you want, and morality only exists to serve your personal sense of satisfaction. That kind of freedom doesn’t lead to peace. It leads to isolation, instability, and eventually, despair.

Freedom Is Union with God

So what do we do instead?

We return. We recover. We reorient around the truth that real freedom is found in loving God.

Ann Voskamp once wrote, “You are always made free from something—to become free for something.” I come back to that often.

The Bible says the same. “If you love Me,” Jesus says, “you’ll keep My commandments.” In other words: to love is to obey. Not out of fear or guilt, but because love always leads to action. That’s the heartbeat behind the Shema in Deuteronomy 6: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.”

I fell down a rabbit hole once studying those words—and found myself in the richest theological Wonderland. The Bible Project’s series on the Shema opened my eyes to what loving God actually means. I’ll summarize it briefly:

• Shema (hear) = to listen and respond. In Hebrew, there’s no word for “obey” because hearing is action.

• Ahavah (love) = not just emotion, but loyalty. Covenant. God’s love is always doing something. Ours should be too.

• Lev (heart) = the center of intellect, will, emotion, and moral choices.

• Nephesh (soul) = your whole being. Not just an essence, but the body, the self.

• Me’od (strength) = literally “muchness.” To love God with everything you’ve got. Your intensity. Your energy. Your very.

This is the kind of love God asks for. Not part of you. All of you. It’s a prescription for the dying man. It’s a call to real, rooted, embodied life.

This Is Why I Write

Everything I create here flows from that kind of freedom—the freedom to become who you were made to be by loving the One who made you. This newsletter isn’t about intellectual ideas for their own sake. It’s about formation. About peeling back the noise of modern life and recovering what we were always meant for: union with God.

That’s what I’m after. And I hope it’s what you’re after, too.

Because when we walk with Him—truly walk with Him—we start to want what He wants. Love what He loves. We begin to look like Him. And that’s freedom: not just being who you want to be, but becoming who you were created to be.

So yes: freedom is costly. We will lose things on this path. But we’ll gain everything. We’ll become more human, more whole, more at home. And we’ll learn to live freely and lightly, in step with the Shepherd who laid His life down so we could rise.

You Are Free to Be

This newsletter is a witness to that freedom story as it unfolds in real time. Every post—whether it’s about culture, vocation, longing, grief, joy, or truth—is written from the lens of someone trying to walk toward Jesus and become more alive. If you’re here, I think maybe you are too.

So here’s what I’ll leave you with:

You are free to be.
Free to be loved and free to love.
Free to be cherished and free to cherish.
Free to be called and free to call.
Free to belong and free to offer belonging.
Free to grieve and free to grow.
Free to lay down your life and pick it up again.

Freedom is here. Now.
Not later, when things are easier.
Not once you’ve figured everything out.
It’s yours already.
Come home to it.