“You’re not the boss of me!”  As the little brother of two older sisters, you can be sure I was plenty prickly about being bossed around.  You don’t have to be the youngest sibling to know the feeling.  I think every little kid frequently feels oppressed by all the many people (grown-ups especially) who seek to exert control over their little lives.  Granted, most of the bosses are benevolent and most of the rules are for the protection and benefit of the child, but that doesn’t make being bossed around any easier to take.

When I was young and chafing under the burden of the controls imposed by parents and teachers, I used to console myself, “When I grow up, no one’s going to be the boss of me.”

How little did I know. 

None of us escapes entirely from external controls or from bosses and others who place demands and expectations on us that we are obliged to satisfy. 

But that doesn’t mean that the impulse to be autonomous – to answer to no one – doesn’t still appeal to us throughout life.

That’s why I have always been struck by the practice in ancient Israel that provided for a slave who declined to accept his freedom.  By Israelite law, a male slave must be released after six years of service.  But if he got married while he was a slave, his wife and any children born to them would not be freed with him.  They would remain slaves of his master.  So, a slave could decline to take his emancipation if he could not bear leaving behind his family or if he was devoted to his master.  In such a case, the slave can declare to his master that he will willingly remain a slave forever.  Then the master is to pierce the ear of the slave with an awl, to mark him perpetually as a slave. (Exodus 21:2-6)

Although it runs counter to the natural desire to be one’s own boss, Christians are ‘slaves of God.’ (Romans 6:22)  To proclaim “Jesus is Lord,” is to surrender control over our lives to God in Christ. 

We are servants who are free to go, but out of love we say, “Pierce my ear; mark me as forever belonging to you.”

Prayer:  To whom could I go in search of a love like that which binds me to you?  I’m yours.

(Hear a beautiful song based on this image from scripture here.)