So Keep Going

Christ has set us free

to live a free life.

 — Galatians 5:1a,

The Message version

I used to wonder what something like “Galatians 5:1a” meant.

I understood the “Galatians” part, and the “5”, and the “1.”  Even the punctuation mark “:” made sense.

But it was that silly little letter “a” tacked on at the end sometimes…what’s up with that?!

Finally I found out it just means this is the first sentence in this verse.   Nothing more.  Except that there was going to be a second sentence starting in this same verse, so keep going.

And that freed me up to go ahead without getting tripped up, or sidetracked, or even sometimes discouraged over this whole “Bible Reading” stuff.  Instead, by the grace of God and listening to what someone told me, I was free to read and understand and apply.

Okay, a confession: all of that is true, but all of that was really about something much bigger.

Namely, Christ has set us free to live a free life.

So keep going.

What are we waiting for?

After all, Christ has set us free to live a free life, and it’s only the beginning.