Have you ever had to do something you had no desire to do, but you had to anyway? I’m thinking of work policies, such as doing mountains of paperwork, following overly convoluted policies, or obeying arduous safety procedures. You can also add in many household tasks: taking out the garbage, cleaning the toilets, changing poopy diapers, shoveling snow (just an FYI, its 78 and sunny in Nicaragua today), and more. Now, there are reasons for doing all of these tasks, and I’m not here to knock their importance. My point is we all have things we would love not to do if we did not have to. I’m sure few of us would choose to follow OSHA regulations if OSHA suddenly ceased to exist, or to change a dozen dirty diapers long after your children were out of them? We do such tasks because, for whatever reason (keeping a job, being safe, caring for our family, etc.), we have to. But what if we all of a sudden didn’t have to do those tasks anymore? Would we simply choose to do them just for the fun of it?
What I’m getting at is this. Many of us choose to do worldly things, often to our detriment, that we simply don’t need to do. Jesus came to earth to teach us the best way to live and to save us from our sin. In Christ we are made totally new. We no longer have to be slaves to the ways of the world, ways that teach us that possessions, money, our job/position, perception, fame, and more are of the utmost importance. Yet, time and time again we choose to be enslaved to the world’s ways. We lust over money and possessions. We constantly worry about how other perceive us. We try to earn approval, a temptation greatly amplified by social media. I know many people, including myself, that spend a disproportionate part of their lives chasing after these worldly things, and are quite miserable doing so. So, why do we keep doing it? We don’t have to please the world. We don’t have to earn its affection. What we have to do is embrace the love God has for us, and lovingly serve Him in return. This week I encourage you to make the following passages from Paul your mantra. Don’t keep slaving away at things the world tells you are important, only to be all the more miserable for it. Instead, full embrace the perfect gift God has gracefully given you.
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? Galatians 4:8-9
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
