March Blog- Selling of One's Soul

~March 31st

What would you sell your soul for? A million dollars? A billion dollars? Knowledge of all things? This is something that I am sure everyone has been asked at some point in their lives. However, is it true that every single one of us sells the soul to evil at some point in their lives? Whether it is lying to your parents, cheating on a test, or gossiping about the new kid in school, it is something we all do. It is unfortunate, but the world is full of lies and sins. It is our job to do our best to avoid selling our soul to the devil and doing what is morally right.

Recently in class, we read Dr. Faustus. In the play, Faustus literally sells his soul to the devil in order to live a life with a wealth of knowledge and magic. However, throughout the play, he is torn about whether to repent and be saved by God, or remain loyal to the devil. By the end of the play, he decides to remain loyal to Lucifer and does not take the opportunity he is given for salvation. The play describes the struggle every person has when making a decision between right and wrong. Of course, in real life, we do not actually talk with the devil about making a pact. However, the good vs. evil problem is almost always apparent when making a decision.

An example of this occurred just the other day. Alex Coleman and I stayed after school in your room to take makeup tests. I am sure you remember Mrs. Burnett. Alex was preparing to take the A Thousand Splendid Suns quiz, when he realized you accidentally gave him the answer key. Alex could have easily memorized all the answered and then gone on to ace the test. In fact, he even accidentally looked at the first answer. Nobody would have argued or been upset if he had used that answer for the first question and gotten at least one answer correct on the quiz(which would have been better than he said he probably did). When Alex saw that answer, he knew there was no way he would have gotten the answer correct if he had not been given the answer key first. Because of this, he purposely got the first question wrong on the quiz. Now, I know that is probably not the best example of selling your soul to the devil, as even you understood that he was going to get that question correct. However, he deemed it morally wrong to take the answer and get the extra point on the test. In his mind, he would have been "selling his soul to the devil" by getting that answer correct. 

Every day, we are faced with much bigger decisions than the decision Alex had to make. Decisions that would create much bigger and harsher consequences. As humans, we will make mistakes. It is inevitable. It is impossible to be a perfect human being. All we can do is do our best to make decisions that are morally right.