A New Playlist-- Part Two (Based on the book by Jacob Armstrong)

A New Playlist- Part 2: “Who is Your Master?”

I was in a training several years ago, and we were asked to list different ways in which we identified ourselves. Words like mom, dad, daughter, friend, foodie, reader, southern, opinionated, funny, Christian, serious, and strong were all given. We all have so many categories to which we belong. I could fill this page with different labels that I attach to myself, or even that others have attached to me. Some are positive, some are negative, and some don’t have any connotation, but are simply descriptors. I’ve even participated in an activity where others filled a sheet of paper attached to my back with words about me as we all filed around a room. For a long while, I had that sheet hanging in my office, because it was full of encouraging phrases—it’s nice to know how others see you, and for you to have a good understanding of how you see yourself. I think that the flipside of our strong identities, however, can be when we elevate our person over other people, and most detrimental of all, over God.

The famous Lincoln quote, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ is actually a direct quotation of Matthew 12:25. Jesus had just finished healing a man who was blind and mute, and the crowd attributed the healing to Satan, giving him the credit for driving out demons. Jesus told them that Satan would not have driven out demons, and that anyone hoping to be effective is not going to work against themselves. He then went even further, teaching that people are either for God or against Him, and that trees are recognized to be either a good or bad tree by their fruit. On a different day, Jesus taught in Matthew 6 that people can’t serve two masters. He seemed to feel very strongly that there were decisions for those who wanted to follow Him to make—He welcomed all to follow Him, but he expected them to actually follow, and not be of two minds about it.

While none of us (hopefully) struggle with the decision as to whether we want to follow God or Satan, I think we often forget that our first identity, more important than even mom, husband, or friend, needs to be that of a child of God, and a follower of Christ. Jacob Armstrong, in his book, A New Playlist, writes,

When you change from being someone who can close big deals to finding your value in the next big deal, beware. When you change from loving a football team to finding your identity in the colors and logo, you are in the danger zone. When you change from being a passionate, committed parent to needing to be the perfect parent who can work, volunteer, clean, and entertain without a hair out of place, be careful. You are inviting a distracted, divided heart to rule over you. And a house divided cannot stand.

It's not that Christ is upset that we have hobbies and interests and family—He’s the one that gave all of this to us to enjoy! He just wants us to keep these things in their proper perspective and order. And although Scripture tells us that He is a jealous God, and even though He completely deserves to have priority in our lives, keeping Him first also has a benefit for us. Keeping Christ as our master stops us from trying to make everybody happy, from having to look good all the time, and from having to run so fast. When we acknowledge that Christ is our master, we can step off of the exhausting treadmill of having to perform and perfect for the approval of others. We can refocus on loving God, on loving others, and on the task of simply being His child. We can find our approval, acceptance, and identity in Him— an approval that is complete love, an acceptance that is not tied to any action, and identity more important and purposeful than any we could create for ourselves.