There ain't nothing free, and there's no "away"!

A number of years ago, while I was still a professor of Biology, I team-taught a class entitled “Life in the Balance.” It was an environmental awareness course in which we tried to look at the pros and cons of both sides of a number of environmental issues. Our purpose was to provide students with sufficient background to make informed decisions without our directly telling them what decisions to make. Because of differing life views, what is an acceptable cost to one person may be totally unacceptable to another.

One point that we tried to clarify was that, in the big picture, there is no “away”. In other words, just because I throw something away doesn’t mean it has gone away. In reality, it typically means, out of site, out of mind. Burying nuclear waste doesn’t eliminate nuclear waste. It simply puts it in a less annoying and, hopefully, safer place. But it is still there. Building a tall fence around an unsafe swimming hole doesn’t make it go away. Flushing excess fertilizer out of fields and down the river doesn’t eliminate the fertilizer. It only moves the problem: it is simply out of sight. Hiding a ghetto behind fancy office buildings doesn’t eliminate the ghetto or its poverty. When a large corporation buys out a faltering competitor, the competitors’ debts don’t go away. The larger corporation absorbs the debts, and charges them against their own profitability, and, ultimately, to either share-holders or customers. “Out of sight, out of mind” gets rid of things only as long as the mind doesn’t work.

A similar concept we tried to dispel was that “free” things exist. There is a law in the physical realm that states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In other words, everything has a consequence, a cost. And this holds true in every aspect of our everyday life. “Free” items offered on TV aren’t free. The manufacturer gets paid for them. The supplier gets paid. There is a cost paid by someone somewhere. In the movie “National Treasure,” the hero, in a tight spot, tells the head of the FBI detail, “I really don’t want to go to prison.” To which the FBI agents replies, “Someone’s got to go to prison.” It doesn’t matter what it is, someone pays the cost for “free” items. There are no free lunches, no free banking accounts, no free medical care (do we really think the doctors won’t get paid?). Even in basketball, there really aren’t any “free throws”, since the other team pays the cost with a foul charged to them.

Have you seen the ads by “credit” counseling companies? “Come to us, and we’ll eliminate your debts. You’ll be debt free!” But guess what! The creditors I owe end up paying my debt by charging higher prices to other costumers (like you, maybe), and I end up owing society a moral debt. There is no away; there is nothing free.

But wait a minute. Salvation is free! At least that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t have to pay anything. Jesus did it all. I know this is true. However, that which Jesus did pays my debt, a debt which I can never repay in twenty lifetimes. That is what the parable of the ungrateful servant is all about. It may be free to me, but it cost Him everything. In His grace, He freely forgives me all my debt. The only thing I owe Him now is my gratitude and undying love; to be a grateful accepting servant.

And what about the “There is no 'away'” idea when it comes to my sins? It says in the scripture that in the earth made new, there will be no sin. So my sins (and yours, if you have any) must no longer exist when we get to the other side. Is it possible that, with our sins, there really is an “away”? Since He’s the Creator God, He must supercede the laws of nature. If He knows how to call things into existence, He no doubt knows how to call them out of existence. He truly is an awesome God.

I learned early as a child that hiding peas under the edge of my plate didn’t make them go away. Someone had to “go to prison.”

Dr. G