The Fourth of July and the Freedom Within

Dear Beloved Community,

As we gather to celebrate the Fourth of July, we pause to honor the freedoms that surround us—freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom to live, move, and grow. But this season also offers us a sacred invitation to explore the freedom that already lives within us.

The Science of Mind reminds us that the truest freedom is not granted by external sources—it is found in our own awareness. It is the freedom to no longer be bound by limiting thoughts, old stories, or conditioned patterns.

We sometimes believe freedom will come when situations resolve or when circumstances improve. But what if real freedom is the ability to be free from the pull of the mind? What if it is found in the quiet space before thought?

Ernest Holmes tells us: “The only God we shall ever know is the God of our own inward experience.”

This means that true freedom comes from within—not from the outer world, but from realizing we are more than the mind’s opinions, fears, and identities.

In the stillness between thoughts, we discover:

There is no striving. There is no judgment. There is no role to maintain.

There is simply life, peace, presence, and the deep knowing that we are already free.

This week, practice gently noticing your thoughts without following them.

Pause, breathe, and ask yourself: Is this thought absolutely true? Who am I if I don’t follow this thought?

Freedom arises in that space.

Ernest Holmes teaches: “We are bound, not by limitation, but by belief.”

When we stop believing every thought, we step into a wide, open field of freedom—the place where we can meet life with presence, love, and clarity.

On this Fourth of July, may we not only celebrate the freedoms around us, but courageously claim the freedom that has always been within us.

Affirmation: “I am already free. I live from the spaciousness beyond thought, where peace, love, and clarity abide."

With love and liberation,

Rev. Tracey Harrick