Okay, maybe changing fields away from such a lucrative one will provide less opportunities for greed to manifest itself. Definitely true. And more often than not, it's a good decision to remove yourself from such a situation, especially if that greed could slowly consume you past the point of wise financial decisions to cheating, stealing, insider trading, etc.
Is it not true though, that removing yourself from business will not protect you from the ability of something else to become your god? For instance, pride? (We could even say that pride may have been greed's fuel in the first place, as more money means more opportunities, more success, more eyes on me.) You soon discover that the avoidance of greed by quitting business and becoming a professor left you widely vulnerable to the sin of pride--knowing more, researching better, having more speaking engagements. These things then begin to consume. There's unrest when you're not at the top, just like the unrest you felt at the colleague dinner when you were cheated out of five dollars.
Hopeless?
Seem like a downward slope?
It's likely that this game of avoidance is the #1 pitfall of our Christian culture. It's likely that we're doomed to always struggle, regardless of location, status, or emotional state. It's likely that sin will appear, even when we try to avoid it so avidly.
Why can't we just cure ourselves of our parts that we can't stand? Why can't I come to Moscow and see my pride simply disappear? Maybe it does become easier to get over yourself in a city of 12-15 million. But for me, when such a struggle seems to improve, something else, whether impatience or greed, quickly fills its shoes.
So if sin management doesn't work...if we can't just cover up impatience by finding new friends...if we can't just cover up a struggle with the approval of others by making better grades...if we can't simply change circumstances to deal with our sin...
What
Do
We
Do?
Jesus would say, focus on Him. Jesus would say, "You're not supposed to be able to fix yourself." Jesus would tell us to embrace His love, chew on it, let it envelope and overwhelm us. He would say, "I've already conquered it for you, if you'll just let me."
"It is finished."
Your sin doesn't own you. Your sin does not define you. You may battle it, but it is not YOU. If you accept Christ's redeeming love, then Christ defines you. You are His. And He conquered.
Therefore, if we want to overcome our bad parts, we must turn our eyes from self-condemnation and self-help books to the ridiculous, outrageously beautiful love that God manifested in His Son Jesus Christ.
As we focus more on the love of Christ, it's implications, and its relevance (of which this is a discussion), the more we will value it. The more of Him we see and discover, the more valuable to us He will appear. And as His value increases, the value of everything else of this world surely decreases.
As a dirty, sinful woman cried for mercy at His feet, Jesus explained His radical acceptance of her to a religious leader by saying this, "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Luke 7:47
We must break free from the trap of trying to trim down our sin by changing circumstances, because the act of sin is only the symptom. The real issue is one of the heart much deeper down, and the only cure is to allow ourselves to fall more in love with HIM, Christ, for how great His mercy truly is. We must cling to Christ, beg Him for intimacy, and allow ourselves to enter a childlike sense of awe. What does God promise?
"Delight yourself in Me;
And I will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
We get more of Him.
The world is minimally appealing when compared to this grand of a love.
And we grow like we've never grown before.
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