CHOOSING YOUR MASTER
‘Choose a boss, not a job’, is a catchphrase that is used in the context of coaching for interviews. The idea is that more than how the job and the employer might appear to be, it is your boss who will make you succeed or fail. A good boss will be able to understand you and will help you grow as the company grows, whereas a poor boss will selfishly abuse you and drag you down along a with a company that goes nowhere under inefficient stewardship. The former situation helps you prosper and be satisfied, the latter leads to frustration and despondency. Ironically, though you work under a boss, you get to choose the boss at the beginning.
Human experience is no different. Man gets to choose which path to take in life. At every point of life, he chooses a path and then that path controls him. You choose to move to a country, and then the laws of the country control you; you choose a habit, and then become addicted to it; you choose a life partner and then submit to that partner. Broadly speaking, man could choose to direct his life in the path of unrighteousness or align himself with God. In the words of Paul,
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ——- 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6)
The choice is between two options that cannot be more different. A life that rejects Christ and follows the sinful inclinations of the human heart, is contrasted with a life that acknowledges the salvation and freedom that Christ brings accompanied by obedience to God. What is important here is that the outcome has eternal significance- the former ensures that man is put away from the eternal presence of God and leaves him with nothing to look forward to in this life and beyond. On the contrary, the latter leads him to the fullness of life here and eternal life beyond.
Man has to choose here as he chooses all things in life. This is the mother of all decisions. He will decide who the boss will be. To say that he will be his own boss is rubbish. You only get to choose whom you will be a slave to-whether a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. Once you have chosen, your master will control you all the way to your eternal destination.
So take a long hard look, and choose well.
