Why should we live by this slogan? The simple answer is: choices. Almost every moment of every day we are faced with choices. These choices range from seemingly innocuous ones (chocolate or vanilla) to major life changers (baptism or no baptism). Regardless of what the decision may be, our choice will affect our future. Every significant choice we make will play a part in determining what our future will be like.
We want a future in the kingdom, and so our every decision should reflect this, otherwise we may stray and end up at a destination we do not want.
Many doors
Growing up I can remember being told by teachers and school books that the United States is such a great country because every single child has the chance to grow up to be president. This may be a rather optimistic statement; but, in theory, it is correct. If, through my life, I was encouraged to follow a life in politics and went to the right colleges, buttered up the right people, and followed the right path, I probably could have the chance to become president. As I grew up and choices were made — some being made for me by my parents and relatives and friends — my life path began to take shape.
At some point in my life, the doors that I needed to be able to walk through to become president, closed. It could be because my parents raised me in a Christadelphian lifestyle, or it could have happened when I made the choice to become baptized. Somehow, sometime, somewhere, the door was closed on my chance of ever becoming president.
“Y” in the road
We make choices every day. The profession we’ll pursue; where we’ll work; the friends we’ll hang out with; what we’ll do in our spare time; what we’ll do tomorrow.
We are a product of every decision we make. And while we all seem to agree that the biggest decisions in our lives include marriage, baptism, and our education, sometimes it is the small decisions that have some of the biggest impacts.
When I was in junior high school, I swore like a sailor. One year in high school, however, I met a boy whom I never heard utter a foul word. I was so impressed that I promised myself that I would never swear again (at least not out loud). This changed a lot of things, including the jokes I could tell, the topics I could speak about, and even other people’s opinions about me. Now, when I’m in a conversation that begins to include rude language or jokes, I have decisions to make that I never would have had to make before. I have to express my anger differently and even pick my friends more carefully than I used to.
So many aspects of my life changed from just that one decision. I had no idea that choice would change whole friendships or influence friends, but it did.
Most of your choices do not seem very life-changing when you make them, but let me assure you, they will have more influence on your future than you can ever imagine. That is why making the best, most educated choices is such an important part of our lives.
The big one
As we move through life, we try to make good decisions, but sometimes we end up making bad ones. We may not know that they are bad decisions when we make them, but we make them all the same. Once we make a major bad decision, doors slam shut all over the place and our future course is drastically altered.
About three years ago I made a decision that has forever altered the course of my life. Because of it, I had to choose between two dark and gloomy doors. As a consequence of my disastrous decision, three years later I had to make one of the hardest choices of my life. I had closed all doors but two and neither of them were “good” choices. I had to choose the “lesser of two evils.”
This happens to the best and worst of men. The king of Israel was once forced into the same situation. When King David numbered the children of Israel, he sinned and incurred the displeasure of God. As a result of his sin, he was given three choices by God: seven years of famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies or three days of pestilence in the land. There was only the “least worst” choice. David had messed up and now was forced to face the consequences. The doors that would let him out without pain or suffering had been sealed and only these three were left, and he had to choose one of them. Still, after it was through, he had to bear the burden of his mistake for the rest of his life through mental scars and lessons he learned.
The right path
I am now bearing the weight of that dreadful decision I made. Almost every day I am affected in one way or another by the consequences. I Corinthians 10:13 tells us that “with the temptation [God will] also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Despite my horrible decision, I was given a way out by God so that I was not doomed for life, but still had a chance of forgiveness. It wasn’t a decision that would let me get away without any scratches or scars, but it was one that let me out of a bad situation with the best path ahead for the future with many important life lessons learned.
God has told us in Romans 8:28 that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” David tells us in Psalm 37: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.”
If we continually strive to follow the Lord and choose to follow his commandments, He will guide us. Even when we make the wrong choices and we stumble and fall, God directs those who love Him. The doors he may send us through will not always be easy ones, but they will take us to our final destination of the kingdom of God.
There it is, take it
If I can leave you with a final thought, it is a quote from a man with the right idea. In 1913, as the Los Angeles aqueduct was opened and water poured out of the spillways behind him, William Mulholland said in his speech: “There it is, take it!” As we sit here with the commands of God flowing forth as the water of life from our Bibles, we have been given a choice. We have an entire lifetime of choices, but one most important choice, “I have set before you life and death…therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19).
There it is, take it.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One