Free

Recently, a woman who provides an expensive service for me said that she’d love to be able, financially, to provide her services for free. After a moment, she added that she probably wouldn’t, though, anyway. People don’t respect things that are free.

Boy, was she ever right. I have, for years, provided certain services to certain people at no charge … and they prefer to trust the word of someone who is charging them an arm and a leg. It forces me to think twice about my motives in making my services free (was I attempting to gain respect or loyalty? It didn’t work!) and forces me to look at myself, as well as others.

This lack of respect for free things is one of the more unfortunate aspects of human nature. That, I believe, is why, in God’s ‘system,’ nothing is free.

Whoa! I can hear you saying, ‘freely you have received; freely give.’

Okay, but what is free? As far as I can tell, the only thing that has no cost at all is God’s spirit. The rest? Let’s take a look.

The cost of wisdom is, according to James, single-mindedness. According to Proverbs, it is very costly indeed. According to Charissa, you pay for it in ‘blood, sweat, and tears.’ Wisdom isn’t cheap, and it definitely isn’t free. Its cost is much higher than simply reading through the book of Proverbs once a month for your entire life.

The cost of God’s power is our own weakness. The cost of the resurrection is death. The cost of the kingdom is making it top priority. The cost of finding God is seeking God—with all of your heart. If you want the treasure, you have to sell everything else to buy the field with the treasure in it. If you want the great pearl, you have to sell everything else to buy it. If you want God’s help, you have to trust Him. To gain Christ, you must lose everything else.

So forget about free; forget about cheap. God knows much better than we do that nothing free gets any respect.

It doesn’t bother Him to say that if you want the kingdom, you’ve got to put it first, because He knows the value of the kingdom. He knows it isn’t a rip-off. He’s okay with charging ‘everything you have’ to gain Him, because He knows His own value. Even at that price, He’s the best deal in town.

We, on the other hand, rarely make a correct assessment of our own value. Some of us demand too much money for our services, and too much of everything else from our relationships. We leave others feeling robbed and resentful. The rest of us pay others to let us provide them with our services, and don’t even expect to be treated with kindness.

There is nothing we buy from God with our money, yet everything has its price. Everything He offers is worth more than the price He’s asking.

Thank you,

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