One of the most beautiful things, and at the same time the most perplexing things about life is our ability to choose. From the smallest things, like what you’re going to put in my coffee, to the biggest, like who you’re going to marry, we make choices everyday. Our minds can grasp the difference between two or more ideas, concepts, paths…and we choose the one we want.
Which road to take to work? Which place to eat for dinner? Which song to listen to? What show to watch? What car to drive? What time to go to sleep? What book to read? What shirt to wear?
Do you ever stop and think about it? I’m sure many of us sit and wonder what life would be like today if we had chosen some different things along the way. Certainly, for all of us, we can say it would be very different than it is.
And yet, in all the choosing, with all the variety of choices we can face, some with hundreds of possibilities, there is one choice which is cut and dry, one or the other. I’ll let Moses say it for me:
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may life and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess…I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deut. 30:15-16, 19)
Life and good. Death and evil. The One true God vs. everything that is false. We all have this choice to make, and there is no choice that has greater consequences for us, both now and forever.
In the books of Chronicles, we see that each king that rose to power had this choice to make. Many chose poorly, and chose to run after the false gods of the world, rather than walk in the ways of their father David, and serve the One True God. Yet others chose well…they chose to follow after God. As was written about one of these kings, Jotham:
“So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.” (2 Chron. 27:6)
Jotham chose to honor God, to obey His Word, to walk in His ways. But after him arose another king, Ahaz, who did not choose wisely, but walked in the ways of the world, and worshipped false gods.
It hit me that not only do all of us have to choose, but (I know this is a shocker) my kids have to choose, too. My son can go one of two ways: the way of life, or the way of death. God’s way, or the world’s way. My choice to follow God will have an effect, I pray, and a good one, but one day, he will, he must choose for himself.
I pray he chooses wisely. I pray I do my part to raise him to know and love the Lord, and he chooses to do just that. But it will one day be his choice, just like Jotham and Ahaz.
So think about it today…what is your choice?
The Wading Pool 