What should I choose -
will this be better…
or will that better?
What would God choose?
Choices aren’t easy. I, for one, am not good at making decisions. To choose this or to choose that? There are pros of both choices and cons of both choices. What then should be our guideline for choosing?
What has God chosen for me? How am I supposed to know? Actually, does God choose for us?
Various choices
Everyday we are faced with choices.
Some are of less importance than others – What’s the menu for our Christmas ?? Where should we go for our summer holiday? How should we decorate the Christmas tree?
Some are of more importance than others – What do I want to work as? Where should I build my residence? Who should I marry and start a family with?
Some are morally and ethically related – What do I do with my rubbish and recycling? How should I react to social injustice?
Some choices are black and white with clear-cut right and wrong. This decisions are easier to make when we do it with a clear conscience. Other decisions have no right or wrong choices with everything more dependent on personal preference.
Making a choice when things are less clear is more complicated since we try carefully to make the right choice without a right choice being available.
In this situation, we can merely make the best choice; this best choice is heavily dependent on perspective. How we perceive our choice results in it being the best or the worst choice.
Not my choice
My two boys have been telling me this recently, “Mum you are forcing me to do this.” My answer is simply, “That’s not true. You have chosen it yourself.”
What has happened is I have given them two choices to choose from. They make the decision after weighing which choice they prefer. Sometimes though, they aren’t too happy with their choice.
Michael usually tries to get out of his choice after he has made the decision by holding me accountable for it. “You forced me. I didn’t want that but you…” He escaped the responsibility of his choice by pushing it to me.
I just followed
Often, we try to get others to decide on our behalf because we are scared of the consequences of our choice. That way we can blame it on others. One person we can easily ask to decide on our behalf is God.
While it might sound like we are being pious by asking God what His choice would be, unbeknownst, it could just be a disguise for us to throw the ball to God’s court. If things do not turn out the way we want it to, we conveniently walk away and ask God to clean up the mess.
When we do not take ownership of our choice, it is easy to avoid being responsible for it, especially when things go wrong. After all, if it wasn’t our choice to begin with, we shouldn’t need to take responsibility for it.
Freedom to choose
God however, does not choose for us. He has left the decision in our hands. Right from the beginning of creation, God gave the first man and woman the right to choose. We see this in Genesis with Adam and Eve making choices for themselves.
Despite being the wrong choices, God trusted them to choose and did not choose on their behalf. It is also because we can choose that God gave his one and only son, Jesus, to enter the world, so that whosoever CHOOSES to believe in Him, may have eternal life (John chapter 3, verse 16-17)
Choices based on love
Since we have been given the freedom to choose, let us exercise this freedom wisely. God had made the choice to give us this freedom and He made the choice to give us his son. Why did God make these choices?
Why did God let us choose even when some might not choose Him? His choices have been made based on one thing and we find the answer in the same verses mentioned above.
John Chapter 3, verse 16 says “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”
Love is not forced and cannot be forced. Love is a choice. God made His choice – He choose to love us and this is seen through the first nativity scene.
Our choice
When we are faced with choices and do not know what to do, perhaps the way to make a choice is to put love at the center of our choices. Loving God, loving ourselves and loving others.
This Christmas, remember that God chose to love us. What would our choice be?
Would this be better or would that be better? As long as it is done IN love, WITH love and THROUGH love, this or that probably won’t make a difference but instead our perspective through the lens of love will make it the best choice ever.
Go forth and choose – LOVE!