I Know I'm a Slave, But...

Last night, I was talking with friends about our New Year's resolutions. The first three of us who shared mentioned desires to grow in our relationships with God and listed of ways we hoped to accomplish this. The last person to share, also a Christian, led her explanation by saying, "Well, my first resolution doesn't have to do with God." She then explained to us that her goal over the next two years is to build up enough wealth that she will be on the path to financial security for life. Basically, she plans to invest the next two years of her life getting money.

The other three of us in the conversation quickly began telling her that she was making money an idol--that it would never satisfy her, that it would demand more from her than she ever expected, that true security in lfe doesn't come from money, etc. I shared with her a quote from Timothy Keller, who said, "If you live for money, you are a slave." As we said each of these things to our friend, she agreed that they were true. She even went so far as to affirm the statement that she is a slave to money. The other three of us jumped in, saying she doesn't have to live as a slave--the gospel will set her free from her slavery. And then she dropped the big one on us. She told us, "I know I'm a slave, but just let me be a slave for another 2 years and then I'll be ok."

Needless to say, I was shocked. Why would anyone who knows they're a slave to a cruel master such as money and who has the opportunity to be free choose willingly to continue living as a slave? But as I have thought more about it, I have realized that this is an attitude I take toward sin in my own life much more often than I would like to admit. I know that the gospel frees me from the need to find my value in what other people think of me, and I know trying to please all the people around me makes me a slave to their opinions, but I say I'll start living in that truth only as soon as this person approves of me. I enter into a slippery slope, from which the only escape is the gospel--the one thing I am willfully ignoring at that point in time. In the words of Tim Keller, my idol "begins redefining all of reality in terms of itself."

Just as my friend needs the gospel to set her free from her slavery to money, I need the gospel to set me free from all of my idolatrous behaviors. As we go into the new year, may God give me the grace to rest in the gospel and find my identity in Him alone.