feat. The Heartfelt Digital Ensemble
The Story Behind “Real Freedom”
“Real Freedom” begins with a question: what would make a person leave everything behind — their home, their birthplace, even their own safety — and risk the journey across stormy oceans toward a place they have never seen? History is full of those who paid that price, facing danger, hunger, and fear, saying goodbye to loved ones and letting go of all they had simply to breathe free.
Written in 2014, the song honors that sacrifice wherever freedom has been won, and the plain truth running through all of it — that freedom isn’t free. But it reaches for something deeper than any border or flag: the conviction that “freedom comes from God,” and the choice each of us is finally given — to walk in chains or walk in liberty. The song’s own answer rings clear: “My only choice is liberty.”
Lyrics
Why would someone roam the earth
Leave behind their place of birth
To seek a place of greater worth
In freedom, real freedom
Why do millions risk their death
Press ahead to their last breath
Leave despair to breathe the air
Of freedom, real freedom
Freedom comes from God for you and me
With a simple truth all down through history
The truth is freedom isn't free
Bless freedom, precious freedom
For freedom many will pay the price
Facing danger, hunger, heat, and snow and ice
They bleed and die, they sacrifice
For freedom, real freedom
Some say goodbye to loved ones dear
To claim their future, face their fear
The call of freedom they can hear
It's freedom, they hear freedom
Stormy oceans so many crossed
In their willingness to bear the cost
Letting go of all they lost
For freedom, real freedom
Freedom comes from God for you and me
With a simple truth all down through history
The truth is freedom isn't free
Bless freedom, precious freedom
For freedom many will pay the price
Facing danger, hunger, heat, and snow and ice
They bleed and die, they sacrifice
For freedom, real freedom
Some think that freedom's price is far too high
Then they pay a greater price as life goes by
Looking back they can only cry
For freedom, cry for freedom
The choice remains today for you and me
Walk in chains or walk in liberty
Suffocate or to breathe free
In freedom, real freedom
So am I willing freedom's price to pay
To be free no matter what others say
To find my place, live every day
In freedom
The answer is so very clear to me
I'll do all it takes so I can live free
My only choice is liberty
It's freedom, real freedom
It's freedom
Real freedom
