Tag Archives: Choices

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Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 21

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“And then tell the people at large, ‘God’s Message to you is this: Listen carefully. I’m giving you a choice: life or death.” Jeremiah 21:8 (MSG)

I make life and death choices every day.

What I choose to think about. What I choose to do with my time. What I choose to say. How I choose to treat my spouse, my children, my family, my friends, my co-workers, and the stranger I meet. What I choose to do with my money. Where I choose go in my spare time.

A million little choices each day. They can be “life” choices that inch us towards life, health, goodness, and love. They can be “death” choices that inch us toward selfishness, spiritual suffocation, decay and isolation.

Today, I have a choice. I have choices. Lots of them. Each of them lead me one of two directions. I inch my way toward life, or I inch my way toward death.

Choose life.

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Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 4

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“It’s the way you’ve lived
   that’s brought all this on you.
The bitter taste is from your evil life.
   That’s what’s piercing your heart.”
Jeremiah 4:18 (MSG)

Everyone encounters difficult stretches in life’s journey. Despite the seeming appearances to the contrary, every person’s journey includes steep climbs, mountain top vistas, and deep valleys. And the road conditions themselves can make some daily treks longer than others. 

Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to wade through the thick muck that naturally comes with a tragic, fallen and broken world. Other times, as with the people Jeremiah confronts in today’s chapter,  our struggle is due entirely to our own poor choices.

God, grant me the wisdom to make wise choices today, that my journey will be easier in the days ahead.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Chronicles 35

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But Josiah was spoiling for a fight and wouldn’t listen to a thing Neco said…. 2 Chronicles 35:22 (MSG)

Just the other night, Wendy and I were talking about times in life when we dive headlong into foolish decisions. We can both look back on life’s journey and point to decisions, relationships, and actions that now make us scratch our heads and shake our heads with incredulity. In retrospect, it’s almost inconceivable how we strike out on our own with blinders on. No one can convince us we’re making a mistake. Our ears are deaf to wisdom.

I’d like to think that time and hard lessons have taught me to recognize when those I trust are providing me fair warning. I hope that I am more willing to realize when my appetites have me driving 90 m.p.h. down a dead end street.

In Josiah’s case, it cost him his life.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 20

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That spring, the time when kings usually go off to war, Joab led the army out and ravaged the Ammonites. He then set siege to Rabbah. David meanwhile was back in Jerusalem. 1 Chronicles 20:1 (MSG)

Looking back over the journey, I’ve come to realize that some poor choices are possible because we’re in the wrong place. Instead of being where we should be, doing what we should be doing, we choose to be in a place where a poor choice is much more likely.

As David became King, history records that he increasingly let others go off to war while he hung back in his palace. I’ve noticed that there seems to be a correlation between his choice not to go to war and some increasingly poor – even tragic – choices.

Be in the right place. Do what I’m supposed to be doing. It makes it easier to make good choices.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 2

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Black sheep. Er, Judah's firstborn, was so bad before God that God killed him. 1 Chronicles 2:3b (MSG)

Many years ago I was preparing a message about the sinfulness of man. As an illustration, I began thinking through my own family. I not only thought about my immediate family, but also thought through the previous generations I knew about and cousins and second cousins and third cousins. I then listed all of the "sins" and sinful consequences I knew about. It was a long list. Drug use, imprisonment, depression, suicide, divorce, etc., etc., and etc.

The point was that we can all find black sheep in our families. There isn't one of us who isn't touched and affected by sin. It is what it is. The reality is that Er is a part of Jesus family tree. Jesus was born in the lineage of David and Judah. Even Jesus was related to a lot of Black Sheep.

We don't get to choose our family tree, but we can all choose to bloom where we are planted.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 1

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Clues from the past to who I am in the present. Adam, Seth, Enosh…. 1 Chronicles 1:1 (MSG)

Reading through the trunk of our family tree today, I could not help thinking about Father's Day this past week. We are all a product, genetically, of our forefathers. We are all influenced, systemically, by our famillies. For me, a huge part of understanding my own journey has been spent answering the questions:

"Who am I?"
"Who is Jesus?"
"Who am I in Jesus?"

Certainly part of the answers have come from learning about my family. In the past I find clues to who I am in the present. And yet, the future is largely determined by me. I choose the next step I take.

What shall I do today?

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Chapter-a-Day 2 Kings 14

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Picking a fight. Amaziah wouldn't take No for an answer. So Jehoash king of Israel gave in and agreed to a battle between him and Amaziah king of Judah. They met at Beth Shemesh, a town of Judah.

 Judah was thoroughly beaten by Israel—all their soldiers ran home in defeat. 2 Kings 14:11-12 (MSG)

As the youngest of four children, I learned a certain life lesson early: don't be gettin' the big head and don't be pickin' fights, especially with people (or siblings) bigger than you. It's simply not a good idea.

Another life lesson I picked up regrettably late in life: if you are feeling so driven to do something that you won't take no for an answer, then stop. Take a deep breath. Think about it. Ask yourself why. Get help. Obsession is generally a sign that, as Shakespeare put it, "something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Amaziah's two victories had him feeling all manly and over confident. Driven by pride, or greed, or lust he picked one fight too many. He ended in captivity, the walls of his city in ruins, his treasures looted. What a great word picture of what happens when we allow ourselves to be driven and obsessed by our pride and flesh. We become captive to sin, our lives reduced to ruin.

God, grant me the wisdom to learn from Amaziah's example. May darkness and hatred be my only conquest. Be, O God, the only treasure my heart truly desires. Set me free from captivity to my self-centered obsessions that I might be captivated only by your Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Kings 11

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It profits nothing to gain the whole world, but lose your soul. Jehoiada the priest ordered the military officers, "Drag [Athaliah] outside and kill anyone who tries to follow her!" (The priest had said, "Don't kill her inside The Temple of God.") So they dragged her out to the palace's horse corral; there they killed her. 2 Kings 11:15-16 (MSG)

The pursuit of worldly power and domination is a bloody affair, and those who embark on that path discover it a toll-roll. The price is your soul; the destination a dead-end.

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Chapter-a-Day Exodus 1

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Deep roots. But the midwives had far too much respect for God and didn't do what the king of Egypt ordered; they let the boy babies live. Exodus 1:17 (MSG)

Interesting. I just wrote a post on my professional blog about principles, and the start of our journey through the book of Exodus seems to pick up on the same theme. There are moments in each of our lives when we must make a choice. We can do the expedient thing or we can do the right thing. It's easy for me to say I'll do the right thing, but these choices sometimes have to be made in the heat of a stormy moment when we're all alone.

The midwives could have made a great case for doing what they were told, being obedient to authority, and saving their own lives.  But they had too much respect for God. 

I think everyone has certain principles, if you ask them. The real question that interests me is: "In whom are your principles rooted?" If my principles are rooted in a higher authority, l find it a whole lot easier to stand amidst the storm and make right choices. If my principles are rooted in myself - my own sense of right and wrong, I find that what is "right" seems to expediently shift with the prevailing wind.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 143

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Choices. Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you. Psalm 143:8b (MSG)

How often we find ourselves at the crossroads. Which way now? Which college should I go to? Which house should I buy? What job should I take? Should I stay or should I go?

It is so easy to be paralyzed by fear that the next step will be the wrong step. If I make a wrong move, I'm doomed forever. Like David's lyric, we plead with God to point out the road. "Why am I left standing here with nothing but my imperfect sense of direction? Why didn't God equip life with GPS navigation?!"

As my daughter stood at the crossroads a year or so ago, I saw her struggle with some paralyzing life choices. Drawing on a musical metaphor, I tried to express a little fatherly wisdom from my own journey in a letter to her:

I don’t think that there is always a right and wrong choice – I believe that you must do right in the choice you make. I don’t believe that our choices are prescribed by God, but are more like notes on a blank sheet of staff paper. Our choices are the melody line we plunk out- it can be beautiful and melodious or dissonant and discordant. Either way, God the great composer stands behind us and creates his own inimitable orchestration around the little melody line of life we plunk out in our choices. Does that mean it doesn’t matter? No! For the notes we choose affect each listener and each person who is a part of the orchestration of our lives. Some choices may be bold and begin a new movement in your symphony. There will be choices that aren’t right or wrong- they just are. God will weave his baton as the audience waits breathless in anticipation of what will emerge. 

Sometimes, the important choice is not which road to take, but the choice to stop looking for a map and start moving.

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