More Than One Way to Sell Your Soul

Our faults and addictions are interconnected, and when we find the common root of our faults, we find wisdom and freedom!

Most of us know the German legend about Faust and his deal with the devil.

Faust is a bit of a con man, but he’s unhappy with his life, so he sells his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited earthly knowledge and pleasure.

Of course, the story doesn’t end well. It is meant to be a morality tale that warns us of the folly of trading eternal things for temporary things.

And that’s the wisdom behind all the disciplines of the Faith; to teach us how to reorient our thinking and choices to eternal values rather than temporary and momentary gains or pleasures.

I would argue that most, if not all, of society’s ills can be traced to our failure to value dignity, faithfulness, responsibility, and honor over comfort, convenience, and self-centeredness.

This is swimming against the tide of our day's madness: true happiness comes from indulging our desires, but it is the only path that will save us from destroying ourselves.

Look at our lesson today in Proverbs 5:15-6:3:

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love. Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventuress? For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he watches all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is caught in the toils of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is lost.

My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger; if you are snared in the utterance of your lips, caught in the words of your mouth; then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s power: go, hasten, and importune your neighbor.

Once again, we visit the Wisdom literature of Proverbs and see the father giving wise counsel to his son. But today, our passage seems disconnected. Reading it, you may ask yourself, “How am I supposed to make sense of this?” It seems our father is losing his train of thought!

First, he starts warning his son about the dangers of infidelity and how treacherous are the passions that intoxicate us with bad choices. Then he seems to switch gears and warn us about getting a co-signer on a loan!

What gives?

This is a fair question, and I hope you’re ready for a powerful insight into the wisdom of our weaknesses and how they all interconnect!

There’s more than one way to sell your soul!

Our passions cloud our judgment so much that bad choices are common in all aspects of life.

Being intoxicated with lust leads to broken relationships. Being drunk with fear or a shortcut mentality regarding business leads to selling my freedom to the banker or risking a relationship with another through loans and bad choices! The common denominator is a passion-intoxicated life that can’t see clearly how to avoid the pitfalls of living.

So, the father advises his son to be: