Selling Our Souls to the Devil

"Hot damn son! I believe you did sell your soul to the devil."

Ulysses Everett McGill

That's from the great movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, in which the character Tommy Johnson sold his soul to the devil to learn to play the guitar. Tommy is made in the image of the eponymous bluesman who is said to have gone to the crossroads to make a similar deal.

So would you sell your soul to the devil? For how much or what?

I don't find the idea of people selling their souls to the devil to be necessarily confined to the world of books and movies. Purchase could be the most common means by which the devil acquires souls. What I believe is fictional is the notion that any of us would hold out for such a high price. Maybe one man in one hundred thousand values his soul so highly that the devil would have to make even a mildly impressive offer. The soul selling business is instead a strange economy where the devil is more likely shopping to find a soul with a high enough asking price to be worth the effort of the negotiation.

What might the devil use to buy a soul. Someone might sell his soul for money. How many people are losing their souls at work for bad to mediocre pay? Souls for sex? Why bother when fake pictures of fake sex mutilate 1.2 million souls per minute. (rough estimate) The scriptures say that Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would bow down and worship him. Jesus sent Satan away. What great power and authority have we been given in exchange for our prostration. We have the power to push buttons and from all the way across the room turn on flashing lights and raise or lower the volume of the accompanying electro-noises.

I think of Saint Mary of Egypt. Who compared herself unfavorably to prostitutes for giving herself away without demanding payment.

I also think of those referred to in the scriptures who did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God. There is a working definition of selling your soul to the devil for a low price. And we see what it means all around us to invent new ways of doing evil.

In the kingdom of God we're going to have to get wise to this soul selling business and relearn the idea of resisting the devil. It is an issue of seeing things clearly.