Free but Accountable

Here I sit waiting for our monthly men's accountability meeting. Last evening on the way to Marion Correctional Institute I had a discussion with a brother who is also a former inmate. He is currently serving as a house director for a transition house for brothers returning to the community after release from incarceration. During the course of our conversation this brother explained that although he has been out of incarceration for more than 30 years, he still has at least 4 accountability partners that he meets with regularly. This really struck a cord with me. In prison we are accountable every waking moment of every day. How many times are we counted every day. We are told when to get out of bed and when to eat. We are told how long we can take a shower and when we can use the bathroom. Yet we do these things begrudgingly. Every action we take we are accountable for but yet when we have someone standing over us it makes the action resented.
When we are released from incarceration there tends to be a knee jerk reaction to the thought of being accountable to anyone. After all, I am free now. I don't need or want anyone else telling me what to do. Is this really freedom? Is it possible to not be accountable to anyone? I do not believe this to be possible. First we are accountable to God and He has placed people in our lives which we are accountable to. There are no Lone ranger christians. This is not the way God designed it nor intends us to function. If we try to function this way then we are in open rebellion and will utterly fail. I believe that there can only be true freedom when we are living in accordance with God's will which He has graciously revealed in the written Word of God. He instructs us not to forsake the gathering together, especially as we see the wickedness around us. (My loose translation of Heb.10:25) he exhorts us to confess our faults one to another that we may be healed. We are to encourage each other on in the faith. We are to share the gospel with a. Lost world that will one day be accountable to a just and holy God. Above all we are to love and you cannot love alone, therefore we are accountable to one another and only. Then are we truly free.