Thought for Today
Joshua 24:15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Psalm 25:12 Who are they that fear the LORD? He will teach them the way that they should choose.
John 15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it.
In the novel I am currently reading, one of the main characters is fussing about a choice he must make. There are 2 contrasting choices, he prefers to make the easier, simpler, less costly choice; but, he knows the alternative choice is better in the long run.
Life is very much a question of making choices. From youth to dotage, we are creatures of choice-making. Do we obey our parents? Do we listen to our teachers? Do we study and work hard? “The Ant and the Grasshopper, alternatively titled The Grasshopper and the Ant (or Ants), is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 373 in the Perry Index. The fable describes how a hungry grasshopper begs for food from an ant when winter comes and is refused. The situation sums up moral lessons about the virtues of hard work and planning for the future.” (en.wikipedia.org) Will we emulate the ant or the grasshopper?
I’m not sure of the details of life in eternity. The Bible is a bit short on the specifics. However, if this life is preparation for the next, I suspect choosing, making the right choices will figure prominently. “The adage ‘Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment; is attributed to Will Rogers and reflects the idea that making mistakes, especially those that lead to negative outcomes, can be a valuable source of learning and wisdom.” (Bing search)
Rarely are we offered a life free from making choices. Even the character in that novel knows that a choice must be made. So, what do we do? Where do we find the resources for making our choices? I often reference the sayings of my own mother when I share these Thoughts. My mother was not a philosopher; she was not a learned scholar; she was a great and wonderful mother. Like many of your own mothers, she often reminded her children (I always listened and took note) that “Two wrongs never make a right.” She sometimes added, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The lessons we learn in childhood can and often do serve us well throughout our lives.
I learned my childhood lessons, however, in a world without television, without computers, without smartphones or global news channels. When I studied wars in school, they all seemed to take place in lands unimaginably distant. When the U.S.A. entered the Korean Conflict (a rose by any other name), most of its citizens could not find Korea on a map. The world in which we now live is not the world of my youth. There have been numerous wars since then in equally distant lands. The technology of today only existed in the science fiction of my youth.
Yet, the truth is that we still face the same basic choice as did those who followed Joshua into the Promised Land. Joshua never saw the movie Ghostbusters, but his challenge is echoed in the refrain from that movie’s theme song, “Who ya gonna call?” Joshua’s response to the question is still appropriate today, “. . . as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
There are specifics in the Bible as to what that choice entails. My own personal ‘go-to’ choice to understand what following the Lord requires is Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Another good aid in making choices is found in Luke 10:27, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Of course, the details of applying these words to your own choices are up to you.
Stay safe, choose wisely, trust God,
Pastor Ray