Releasing Lives

I heard on radio this morning about pet sellers facing difficulty in getting buyers for birds, ever since the news of bird flu. One of the sellers told the reporter that many people buy birds in bulk to 'release lives' (fàng sheng) as an act of setting free or liberating 'lives' in captivity. This sets my mind thinking.

In order for ‘lives’ to be set free, these ‘lives’ must first be in captivity, else there cannot be any experience of liberation or freedom. Does this mean in order to do the good in releasing lives a greater evil must first take place in capturing these lives? Does it mean in order to appreciate freedom, lives must first be in captivity?

Many religions today believe in releasing birds as an act of setting free the captives. A look at the American Express advertisement of Richard Gere sponsoring a girl to release multitude of birds, and the many Hong Kong television serial dramas will show this is true. This method of liberation is a good way to make the bird sellers rich. The sellers capture the birds and people pay money to release them, an act I consider enterprising.

Let us see these beliefs in human equivalence. Few of us will ever think of ourselves as totally liberated with complete freedom. We are in some sense captives in a prison, no matter how much ‘freedom’ we have, so long as we have governance. Governance is by no means totally bad, because it provides some form of order and liberation, without which we may become out of control. Liberation, in this sense, means we must first be in captivity, and only in captivity and deprivation, can we experience what it means to be free.

In the day Man chose to disobey God, Man has fallen and chosen captivity. Since Adam’s time, we are already in need to be set free, and this by no means is possible by the act of releasing birds from their cages. We were not created as captives, so we cannot say a greater evil is needed in order for us to experience freedom.

Freedom is not something we can purchase by doing good. We are essentially slaves to sin, and we need help to be set free. Freedom needs to be paid in blood, without which liberation from sin is impossible. Jesus, for this reason, has paid the price by shedding His blood on the cross for you and me, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18 NAS)

If you have not found Christ and invite Him into your heart, let me invite you to do so now. Jesus can liberate you from the hold of sin and give meaning to your life on earth. No longer do we need to live lives without meaning or aim, for the love of God can encompass and overwhelm you to experience true freedom in the LORD.