One Would Think That Selling One's Soul, As ...

One would think that selling one’s soul, as Faust offered his to the devil in Goethe’s Dr. Faustus, is only a figment of literary fiction. Medieval as it seems, however, several cases of soul-selling have occurred. Wired magazine reported that a 29-year-old university instructor succeeded in selling his immortal soul for $1,325. He said, “In America, you can metaphorically and literally sell your soul and be rewarded for it.” One wonders how the purchaser intended to collect. We can’t literally sell our soul, but we can lose our soul to gain something else. We need to ponder Jesus’ question, “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16: 26). Our answers today would differ only in specifics from the responses of Jesus’ day: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The lusts that captivate us and the thirst for unbridled pleasure, success, revenge, or material things have certainly taken on far more importance to many people than any considerations of eternity. [Source: Our Daily Bread, Sunday, May 31st 2009]