The Price of Freedom
by Drenda Keesee
“Give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
I read this quote recently and thought it was quite fitting for the times we are living in right now. Henry said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” He said this in 1776 during the Revolutionary War.
Patrick Henry understood the price that would need to be paid to create a new democracy, a country unlike any the world had seen before. And he was willing to pay that price for our future, for our destinies.
It seems that this attitude is becoming a rarity in our culture today. So many people are too comfortable and self-centered to be inconvenienced by sacrifice, hard work, risk-taking, reaching beyond their comfort zone, showing compassion, and putting the good of our country, their marriage, or their family over their own desires. I’m not saying everyone is that way, but a growing epidemic of selfishness has crept over our land. You may be saying, “Hey, my life is anything but comfortable!”
Well, let me ask you…
…is your life uncomfortable because you are stretching to be all you can be, reaching new heights of learning, working hard to love others, and laying down your life for a friend? Or are you uncomfortable because you have brought unhappiness on yourself through selfishness? Or maybe someone else’s selfishness has brought you pain.
No matter what, selfishness equals loneliness, depression, pain, and ultimately, a wasted life. As my father says, “You are either going to pay the price of success or the price of failure, but make no mistake, you will pay one or the other. Are you paying the right price?”
Today, there are brave men and women in every sector of society who are paying the right price, to help change people’s destinies physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They are paying the price of success in the business world, creating wealth and providing new jobs. There are people paying the price of freedom, fighting in the military to make sure we stay free. There are people paying the price of love, giving of themselves to raise a godly family, and demonstrating what a good marriage looks like. There are people paying the price of compassion, giving of themselves to those less fortunate, mentoring the next generation, ministering to those who are broken, and hopeless.
We need more people like Henry, who are willing to lay down selfishness and live a bold, daring life of giving. We need people who are willing to pay the right price.
And that price is never too high to pay because the return on people’s destinies is ALWAYS worth it!
~Drenda
ps…Are you looking for a good church? Be sure and listen on Saturday evening or catch the 3 services on Sunday for Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesee’s have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then the irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
