If you were a child or a teacher in the 80’s and 90’s, it is possible that you have heard of Choose Your Own Adventure books by Edward Packard. How many of you read books or watch a movie and ask, “Why are you hiding from the bad guy upstairs?” or “Why are you walking alone at night?” These books were written to give you choices to make to change those things. It would read like this, “If you want to look for the princess in the dungeon, turn to page 43. If you want to look for the princess in the tower, turn to page 50.” The ending and the adventures you had along the way changed depending on the choices you made. The beauty of a book like that is you could read the same book many times and it would never have the same ending. Each time you made a choice, if you didn’t like the outcome, you could go back and try again. If only life were so.
It seems that every day we are in our own “choose your own adventure.” Every day might not be an adventure, but every day is filled with hundreds of choices and decisions to make. Some of them we make with little-to-no thought. They are minor in the scope of the big tapestry of our lives. Others, we might linger on before making a decision that can’t be changed. Moses set before the people this choice: “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it” (Deut. 30:15-16). If you were given this choice, which would you choose? This was presented to them again after they conquered the Promised Land. Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve” (Josh. 24:15). He was restating the choice that they had made before they came into the land.
These two instances highlight some truths about our adventure of choices. The weight of some choices determines other choices for us. Moses said that if they chose life and prosperity then they had also chosen to love God and keep His commandments. In a similar way, when we chose to serve Christ we also chose to pattern our lives after His. While we can’t go back and do things over again, grace allows us to do better next time. We can’t avoid the consequences, but we can get back on the right path that leads to the reward at the end of this adventure. Not all choices are life altering, but we need to be alert to those choices that can forever change our path and set us on a course for an undesirable ending. The choices we make echo into eternity. What choices will you make this year to keep yourself and those around you on the path?