O Missus, is we free?

It was Jesus who said, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36, NIV). What a promise! And yet, sadly, many believers today do not know the freedom of which Jesus speaks. They are inwardly bound and outwardly unhappy. They are like the woman in the story told by Hannah Whitall Smith in her book entitled The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. The lady in the story did not know that during the American Civil War Abraham Lincoln had issued what he called “The Emancipation Proclamation,” that is, freedom for all those who had been held as slaves in the Southern United States.

The story tells of a lady who, in her travels, came across an older black woman who was still living as a slave on a plantation in the South. When confronted with the truth of what Lincoln had done in freeing the slaves, her reply was:

“O missus, is we free?”
“Of course you are,” replied the lady.
“O missus, is you sure?” urged the woman, with interest.
“Certainly, I am sure,” answered the lady. “Why, is it possible you
did not know?”
“Well,” said the woman, “we heered tell as how we was free, and we asked master, and he ‘lowed we wasn’t, and so we was afraid to go. And then we heered tell again, and we went to the cunnel, and he ‘lowed we’d better stay with ole massa…Sometimes we’d hope we was free, and then again we’d think we wasn’t.”

This story reflects a tragedy that so often plagues the people of God today, for “Sometimes we’d hope we was free, and then again we’d think we wasn’t.” How we need to believe and embrace the truth of Jesus words that spell “freedom!” We should be like the freed slave in our story, who after hearing that she was no longer meant to stay in bondage declared with joy: “I’s free! I’s ain’t agoing to stay with ol massa any longer!”