Freedom to Choose

“There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”

-David Foster Wallace.

Wallace was an agnostic novelist, so while his above statement wasn’t rooted in Christianity, it was, in fact, rooted in truth.

Throughout history, psychologists and anthropologists have agreed that humans possess a psychological need for order, meaning, and a connection to something bigger than themselves.

And since the beginning of history, God has declared that that innate need was by design.

Our human need to worship someone or something is a God-given impulse. He is calling us to Him. He says so Himself in Isaiah 43:7. We were created for His glory. Every aspect of our lives is to bring glory to His name; we are to devote ourselves fully to Him. He doubles down on this a few sentences later in verse 21, asserting that He made His chosen people for Himself that they may proclaim His praise.

Make no mistake brothers and sisters, we are free . . . to choose our own master.

As Paul points out in Romans 6:16-18, we are essentially slaves to who or what we choose to follow. We are free to follow the ways of the world and desires of the flesh. This ultimately makes us slaves to sin, and the wages of sin is death (v. 23). But should we choose the path that leads to life, we are therefore slaves to righteousness, obedient to Christ, and now accountable for our use of freedom.

Being free from our sin cannot be separated from being obedient to God. We will only ever be one of two things: either a slave to our sin or a slave to righteousness.

This is where the slope get slippery. We are warned across countless pages in the Bible to not make false gods for ourselves.

Exodus 20:3

Leviticus 26:1

Deuteronomy 8:19

But not all gods come shaped as bulls or stone statues and outfitted with gold or precious gemstones.

Money. Celebrities. Our own athleticism, appearances, or successes. Even our phones. These examples are but a few of the many false gods humans often subconsciously bow to on their quests to worship something.  You see, we humans are sinful by nature, intent on self-destruction. Because of this, anything we idolize has the potential to become a falsely appointed god in our lives.

The thing about life though is . . . there’s only room for one.

Matthew 6:24 warns us that no one can serve two masters.

And we read in Joshua 23:15 that we have the freedom to choose this day who we will serve.

We are not free from serving. No one is free from worshiping. But righteousness or sin, life or death, God or gods . . . we are free to choose our own master.

And upon making that choice, we’re gonna have to serve. I won’t provide instructions for how to serve the world, because as Joshua boldly states at the end of chapter 23 verse 15, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  But friends, it’s not enough to simply say we believe in God, to claim we’re going to follow him. Belief in God and commitment to His will, way, and call over our lives is active, not passive. We’re gonna have to live it.

Beyond that still, we’re gonna have to feel it. True obedience to God must stem from the heart. This means it’s not simply formed out of a desire to avoid punishment or to look good on the outside but born of an earnest desire to glorify the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, we are free.

Free from our sin, free from our pasts, free to be who the Father desires us to be, to live lives that glorify Him and lead others to do the same.

We are free to choose.

It is my prayer that we all choose the path that leads to life, choose righteousness, choose Jesus.

And Jesus, I thank You for choosing me 2000 years ago when faced with a cross.

“The world behind me, the cross before me.

No turning back, no turning back.”