Trapped by Freedom

Not long ago, a friend of mine casually made reference to being "condemned to be free." Curiously, I asked for a more detailed explanation. Making reference to several complex situations which had arisen, she stated something along the lines that she wished "someone would just tell me what to do." It dawned on me at that point just how common of an issue this is. Governments around the world are able to sustain themselves, and often take great authority, purely on the basis that the average person would rather defer to the authority of experts than to make decisions themselves. It is much easier to float down the Mississippi from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico than to navigate the oceans and find the way from Europe to India. Freedom, while a word used a lot these days, is a much more complicated subject than we often give it credit for.
History has produced two very different ideas of freedom. The first I will refer to as Freedom From (FF). This type of freedom grants the person the ability to avoid the negative aspects of life (sin, for example). It is a freedom wherein our actions are limited to only those which are good for us, and thus allow us to escape injustice, meaninglessness and suffering. The second type of of freedom is Freedom To (FT). FT allows us to make any decision we wish, no matter what the consequences may be.
Each type of freedom provides benefits and poses problems. Freedom from takes away the things we truly wish to avoid, ensuring that any other option which remains is basically acceptable. People who suffer from chronic or terminal illnesses, are trapped in slavery or prison, or who have some other condition which makes life less than worthwhile at times generally seem to look for FF. A few restrictions are a small trade off for the ability to eschew the horrible conditions they must presently endure. Freedom to is a much better approximation of the American idea of freedom. As thinking people, we can make decisions which best benefit ourselves and others and we must accept the consequences of those choices. How does the government, or anyone else for that matter, know what's best for me? Power has been abused too many times by those in power, and FT is the best way to avoid it.
In the end, these types of freedom are mutually exclusive. FF requires some authority to constrain our actions and ensure we avoid things which will harm us. FT requires that no authority has any real claim over me and thus I can do as I see fit. We as humans are stuck with quite a dilemma. On the one hand, we are endowed with Freedom To do whatever we choose. As a single individual, there is really nothing internal to forcibly restrain me from taking even the most heinous course of action. Yet, we are similarly given a sense of right and wrong, as well as a universe which provides plentiful reasons to not make certain choices.
The Freedom promised by Christianity is an awkward balance between these to. On the one hand, Christians are Free To act against "the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12) As such, we need not fear any authorities which may constrain us. However, we are simultaneously "slaves to righteousness." (Romans 6:18) This grants us Freedom From hopelessness, fear, and all other conjugates of sin. What Freedom in the Christian sense really seems to be is Freedom To act in the world on the basis of Freedom From sin which we gain through allegiance to God. Christianity demands both. Freedom From without FT leaves a coward who is of no use to the Kingdom, and Freedom To without FF leaves an unrepentent sinner who has no interest in furthering the Kingdom. Our freedom must be complete, or we remain slaves.