No Thanks! I’d Rather Be A Slave
Imagine this:
You wake up one morning and realize that the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation were a dream. African-Americans are still slaves. Finally, someone comes along to lead the slaves to freedom and you decide to take the journey. But, somewhere along the way the people begin to panic because they realize their captors are in hot pursuit. They begin to complain to the freedom fighter, “Was it because there were not enough graves on the plantations that you brought us out here to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of slavery? Didn’t we say to you, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve our masters?’ It would have been better for us to serve our masters than to die out here!”
Really? Why would they rather be back on the plantation? Perhaps their fear was more real to them than the potential life that lie ahead. But knowing what you do, do you think a journey to freedom is worth it?
Oh, there is one important fact I left out. This is actually a true story about a group of people God lead out of slavery (Exodus 14:11-12). Their freedom fighter was commissioned by God. The people did not know where they were going but God was their guide. While that should have been good enough, the people had to overcome their fear of leaving to reach the land God promised them.
One of Jesus’ disciples asked Him a similar question when Jesus told them that He is our freedom fighter. The conversation goes like this: Jesus said, “‘I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 4:2-6).
Being in sin (willful disobedience or having a noncommittal attitude towards God) is spiritual slavery. While we are all born in sin, Jesus offers us a way out of that slavery with the ultimate destination being eternal life. A journey to trusting God means a journey away from…you fill in the blank. The pit stops and pitfalls of the journey may be unknown at the time of departure. Scary stuff, but you can do it!
Like the fear experienced by the slaves running from their masters, the journey away from our old life to follow God frightens many of us. God already knows we fear the unknown. He knows that the spiritual life is a mystery to us but He longs to take you on a journey.
Do you think the countercultural journey to freedom is worth it?
