Are you familiar with Alexei Navalny?  A thorn in the Russian Kremlin's side for many, many years, Navalny has fearlessly challenged the authorities in Russia over their autocratic and corrupt ways with speeches, videos, and more.  Last year, when he fell ill on a flight in Siberia and was subsequently flown to Germany for treatment, the world learned that he had been deliberately poisoned, likely on the orders of Vladimir Putin.  Yet after recovering from this near death experience, Navalny packed up himself and his family and returned to Russia.  He was arrested almost immediately after landing.  Last month, he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

    As far as anyone can tell, however, Navalny continues to challenge.  Recently, I was happy and fortunate to see the documentary film made about him.  It was powerful and moving.  Although Navalny is only one person, he has succeeded in building up a potent organization of dissent in Russia, one that, despite the imprisonment of its leader, works daily to undermine the corrupting authority it believes the current Russia leaders to be.

    Navalny is a brave individual.  Those of us who live in the West and its generally tolerant attitudes toward dissent cannot know what it is like to be arrested for criticizing our government. (Although cases can be made that, at times, this happens in the West, too.  But not on the scale as it occurs in Russia.)  We owe Navalny a great deal of debt and admiration.  And our prayers.

    For even though some counsel gently accepting one's lot as the appropriate response to systematic oppression, it yet seems as if there's another side to the story:  no deserving person should have to live without freedom.

    God didn't make us to live in chains.