This morning, I was asked to share a few thoughts in church about what freedom means to me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend, so I put some of those thoughts in writing instead.

My thoughts on freedom

When I think about freedom, I don’t think first about politics or even Government. I think about people. I think about the young men and women who raised their right hands and stepped forward when their country called. I think about friends who never came home, and others who came home carrying wounds you can’t see. I think about the families who endured long separations and quiet sacrifices so that others could live in peace. Freedom has always had a face for me. It has names. It has stories.

Over the years, my military service, rescue work, and humanitarian missions have taken me to places where freedom was fragile, where people lived with fear, uncertainty, and few choices about their own future. Those experiences changed me. They taught me that one of the greatest blessings we enjoy as Americans is not simply liberty itself, but the gift of agency—the ability to choose our path, speak our minds, worship according to our beliefs, build a life for our families, and pursue our God-given potential. The more I traveled, the more grateful I became for the freedoms we often take for granted.

I love this country—not because it is perfect, but because of the principles upon which it was founded and the opportunities it has given generations of ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I have spent much of my life serving alongside people willing to stand between danger and the innocent, and that service taught me that freedom is not an entitlement. It is a sacred trust. Every generation inherits it, protects it, and passes it forward.

Today, when I reflect on freedom, my heart is filled with gratitude. Gratitude for those who came before us. Gratitude for those who continue to serve. Gratitude for the blessings of living in the United States of America. And gratitude to God for the gift of agency itself—the ability to choose faith over fear, service over selfishness, and hope over despair. To me, that is what freedom truly means.

God bless you and your loved ones, and may God bless America and all other freedom-loving nations and people.

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Thank you for listening.

— David Burnell

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