Who the Son sets free

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36) 

David and I celebrated our first Fourth of July together a few weeks ago while working on his VA Beach house renovations. His home is a long-postponed fixer-upper – built in the 1960s – that we’re enjoying renovating together. Well, David is renovating. I’m helping and encouraging him every step of the way.   

Watching the transformation is astounding. I’ve always enjoyed restoration jobs myself. I’ve stripped and restored furniture, planned and orchestrated vast landscaping projects, and removed a horrific chalk wall in my former kitchen. I used to think my undertakings were pretty good. They’re nothing like David’s. To see the concrete floors of David’s home be replaced with beautiful Pergo wood plank flooring is phenomenal. What a difference the flooring has made in his house! And the renovations are just beginning.   

More than that, I remember the day David came to me in GA, jumping up and down in our garage like a little kid. He was so full of energy, joy, and excitement that his actions surprised me. We’d only been married for a few weeks when David decided to flush all his anti-depressants down the toilet. A counselor had prescribed them to him years ago, and he’d faithfully kept taking them, thinking there was no way he could stop doing so.   

“I feel so good! I feel so good! I feel so good!” David kept saying. I remember thinking, is this for real? Could this reaction last? All I knew at the time was that his transformation amazed me.  

I’m happy to report that the changes did last – and the results are beautiful.   

That got me thinking; how many people are walking around today with lives wholly controlled by medication, illegal drugs, or believing that some form of surgery will somehow “make them better”?   

While 2023 statistics are still being calculated, 2016 figures reported that one in six Americans were taking anti-depressants – not yet considering COVID isolation escalations. According to the UK-based Pharmaceutical Journal, in 2022, anti-depressant use escalated by 5.1%, with a whopping increase of 35% in new users over the past six years.   

The real question is, how many of those who now use anti-depressants genuinely need the medication? According to the Economist, independent studies have shown that only 15% of those taking anti-depressants showed improvement with the drugs versus those taking placebos.   

In 2021, I watched a dear friend plummet from happy to suicidal within months. Despite her previously diagnosed depression, I witnessed firsthand my loved one’s determination to thrive. In just a few short months, Patty had recently recovered from hip surgery, bought herself a new car, and consistently gave God praise and glory for her many blessings in life. After months of not seeing her long-term counselor during her post-surgical recovery, she visited him, prompting a medication modification.  

 Unfortunately, this prescription alteration mutated Patty’s behavior from jubilant to joyless in just a few short weeks. I watched her lose her will to do anything – including cleaning her apartment, bathing, seeing me, or caring for her cat.   

After a month of decline, I called Patty’s doctor to inform him of her altered mood and my concern. He was reluctant to adjust his prescriptions, opting to give her more time to adjust to his prescription changes.   

A little over a month later, after not reaching Patty by phone, I requested a welfare check from her apartment’s management team. Mere words can hardly express the shock and horror I felt after learning that my friend had been found dead. To this day, I remain confident that Patty purposely took her own life via a drug overdose of prescription medication. I still miss her greatly.  

Similar to the societal desire to utilize mood-altering anti-depressants, illegal drug use is continually rising – with fentanyl becoming one of the deadliest offenders. Between 2016 and 2021, fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased by 279% in our nation. David and I recently passed a country home near Chesapeake, VA, with a banner strewn across their front fence featuring the face of a loved one whose life had been tragically ended by fentanyl at a young age. A few years ago, I listened to prosecutors detail the devastation this drug can inflict on a community as I sat on a federal jury seeking to convict a drug dealer on six counts of the distribution of fentanyl. We found him guilty on all counts.  

And what about the rise of life-altering surgeries being pushed on minors who’ve been convinced by the media, teachers, and the internet that they will not be happy until they fully embrace their “self-identified” gender? Apart from the loss of innocence of our youth, the confusion, madness, and chaos inflicted on families facing these challenges is unfathomable.   

Just ask Erin Friday, a California mom who battled the sinister propaganda machine that sought to steal her daughter from her for the gender cult. “This is a $11 billion industry,” Friday said. “It’s a multi-headed hydra. There are people who are pushing this for financial gain; the medical community and the Big Pharma are pushing this because each trans-identified child is worth a million to a million-and-a-half dollars. They are lifelong medical patients.”  

And so I ask again, how many people believe they need something that harms them – sometimes irreparably – because someone told them they needed it?   

How many people are like the woman that news reporter Laura Ingraham interviewed (1:51) on the streets of San Francisco, crying because she felt she had to have fentanyl to cope with life?   

How many doctors prescribe medications to “help” people who don’t need them?   

How many people think they need a drug, medication, or surgery to “fix” what only God and love can do?   

Such thoughts come from the devil. He’s manipulating countless people into seeking anything other than God.   

But not David. Not any longer. David is free, thanks to his Savior. My husband is a wonderful, handsome, talented, intelligent, gifted, tender, kind, thoughtful, and uniquely magnificent man. I’m so grateful to God for giving David to me as my husband – and for giving David his freedom.   

While I’m continually amazed by David’s ability to transform projects into masterpieces, I’m more impressed by what our Heavenly Father has done to ultimately convert David’s body and spirit into a new creation. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!”   

David’s and my lives are better for our Savior’s touch. We perpetually pray that all those seeking God will find liberty in His transforming power – just as we have. After all, as John 8:36 reminds us, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”