40 Years in the Desert – 5. The Price of Freedom 1

Any given thing is as valuable as the price we are prepared to pay for it. If we really want to enjoy freedom, we have to be ready to pay the price that it demands. Here are some of the possible ‘prices’ we may need to pay.

5.1 Slower Pace of Growth

From a biblical perspective, faithfulness, not pragmatic effectiveness, is the test of our faith. This may sound strange in our pragmatic times, when we tend to consider that if something ‘works’ it must be right. The Bible tells us that Abraham believed God and he was counted as righteous on the basis of that faith (Gen. 15:6): nothing pragmatic about this story; it was all about faithfulness.

40 Years in the Desert – 1. The Legacy of Communism 2

1.2 Unrealistic Expectations from the State

Because of their fundamental lack of trust in people, communist regimes tend to treat them like children. The communist state assumed responsibility for making all the important decisions and for providing (of course to the extent that they were able, given the structural economic ineffectiveness of the system) for those needs of people that they considered legitimate.