Choice

(Lazy Days, Margaret Collyer)

"The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice -- their choice." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

I discovered this quotation in an Uncle Eric book, Ancient Rome: How It Affects You Today, by Richard J. Maybury (whose books I highly recommend, by the way). As you probably surmised from the title of his book, Mr. Maybury uses this single sentence with regards to the broad scope of history. However as I read it and the rest of the chapter, I couldn't help but reflect on the consistency of that idea on a smaller scale.

To use an example from my own life, this statement holds true when the alarm clock sounds or mealtime approaches. (Recently, I have been pulling weeds from the discipline bed in my garden, especially when it comes being disciplined with my body, the earthen-jar-turned-holy-temple, so such things have been on my mind.) Jolted from slumber, do I switch off the alarm and fall back into sleep, or do I rise up and begin my day? Craving all the "wrong things," do I fill myself with fleeting fancies, or do I nourish my body with necessities for functioning? Perhaps it seems a simple choice in the moment, but sleeping in and slipping treats will affect the rest of my day, if not my week, month, year, and life!

Almost everything I read is analyzed through the lenses of a girl hoping to be a wife and mother. Consequently, I considered the implications of Eisenhower's statement in just one generation. Even last night, my family conversed with another Pastor's College student about his conversion. In one evening he went from a drug addict destroying his own life to a gospel addict burning with a fiery passion for Jesus. Just one small choice reversed the course his life was taking. Actually, and here come my reformed roots, just one small choice of God's reversed the course his life was taking, the course my life was taking.

Thank God for the "small" choices He makes. May he impart the sobriety of the small choices to His children, for indeed, life is a never ending decision waiting to be made.