Faust is Following Me!

So recently I was reading a fictional book about this guy who died and all evidence seemed indicate that he had been killed by the devil, basically because the guy had “sold his soul” to him and the devil came to collect. The lead detective in the story reference the literary classic “Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe, which has a similar premise. As the book continued, the detective alluded to more of Marlowe's classic and it intrigued me so much, I actually picked up up a copy at Barnes and Noble one night. [It still sits on my shelf, but I will read it!] A few weeks after that, I get an email from the performing arts center here in town about some shows coming to town, and some discount tickets. One of those shows was a French opera, FAUST. Intrigued, I bought 2 tickets for $17. I attended the show last weekend, and was enamored by this story again of this male lead, giving up his soul for the pleasures of youth. But it wasn't until I was driving a few nights again when I started to get weirded out. I was listening to a playlist of my favorite band, Switchfoot and their song “Faust, Midas and Myself” comes on. I started to get the sneaky suspicion that Faust is following me.

I stopped to think about my own life and began to see some parallels to Faust. No, a creepy old guy didn't follow me home one night and force me to sign papers containing my soul. But, I do find myself playing into the hands of Satan more often than I like to admit. One lyric of the Switchfoot song really jumped out at me “What direction? Death or action! Life begins at the intersection.” I feel that is so true at this stage of life I'm in right now. As God is burdening me with ministry opportunities, I find myself stuck at an intersection. Am I choosing life? Am I selling my soul for fleeting pleasure? What do I chose? I just pray that I don't take the same road as our friend Faust, and reap the serious consequences of that fatal choice. “You've one life, You've one life, One life left to lead...”