It was my privilege to travel with our high school band a year or so ago to Washington DC. I was one of a few sponsors for their journey to play a few songs during that Memorial Day weekend. We did not travel by airplane but at least we did not have to go on a school bus. A chartered bus took us to and from our nation's capital. We also got to do some sight seeing along the way. One of the places we went was to Mount Vernon. Our first president sure did pick out a great place to build his home. A group of us walked all over the estate looking at different aspects of his home. George Washington was a man ahead of his time. He laid out his land for different uses from farming to ranching. This stop is still one of my personal highlights of our trip.

One of the fascinating things to see are slave houses there among the buildings. You can still observe how his servants were housed. We do not have such a great track record on slavery in our country. Basic facts of history do not begin to spell out how problematic the reality of slavery was for us. It would take almost a hundred years for emancipation to arrive for an entire collection of people. Reality is that it took almost two hundred years before laws would be enacted to establish the rights of all under our constitution. Today we still find people with real emotional reactions to the idea of slavery. It seems to be a word that cuts us at our core.

There isn't anyone who really likes being told what to do. The youngest of children will show defiance at the simplest of suggestions. Teenagers surely do not like being told what to do. Maybe the best idea with them is to tell them to do one thing with hopes they will do another. We don't like being told what to do at work. It does not matter the nature of our job as we always seem to know better than the person above us. Our list could go on endlessly but you get the picture. I think there is something in human nature that immediately moves into rebellion at the very idea of our taking orders from another. My thinking is it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Our first two human beings just had to rebel against one single command of God. It was just too much for them to resist.

We talked yesterday about the idea that we are servants of God. The root word is really more like being a slave than a servant. Paul writes that we are freed from sin so we can move into a new way of living. He also says that our behavior is the public display on where our heart resides. Why do we need to be slaves in this way? One truth is that our decisions to obey God will lessen that tug of carnality we feel. Saying yes to God allows us freedom from those selfish desires we all have. Another thing it does is to shape our character. The more you can say yes to God will go a long way in making you His person. Sometimes we just hide our narcissistic behavior with excuses. We refuse to take blame for the damage we do in life. It is far easier to point fingers at others than to own up to our personal defects. All of this can defined with a single word. Sin.

Our captor is not some slave owner who is motivated by profit. The main culprit in our slavery to sin is the person you see in a mirror. We want to do what we want to do just because we can. God's word is designed to illuminate our faults or failings so we can mature. There is more to the problem of sin than just getting caught. You have to realize the effect it has on character. This is much more than being religious or going to church. Battles like this are raw with conflict involved from the start. You can choose to obey God but do not expect it to always be easy. You will have all of God's resources offered to you. This still does not guarantee that it will be a simple process. It does promise to be an eternal path that affects your life and the lives of others for the better.

Bro. Trey