CHOICES TO MAKE

Joshua 24:15---And if it seems evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Life for many people is like riding a raft down a river without any poles or oars. For many people, life runs to extremes. The circumstances of life can be like riding on raging rapids or being stuck in a stagnant pool with no movement. An essential truth of life is that either you control life or life will control you. There is, for many people, no choice over their circumstances, and they have no voice to express their pain. An eighty-five-year-old person in a nursing home, it would seem, has few options about life. However, there are a few choices a person confined to a nursing home can make. A nursing home resident can love God, love others, and pray. The reality for every person is that life will handle you if you don't have a handle on life. There is always a choice about how you will be.

You may not have a choice about what you do in a circumstance, but you do have a choice about the kind of person you are. You may be caught on a raft on a raging river with no control over where you are, but you can control how you respond to that circumstance. The great tests of life are the tests that require humility, courage, love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. You control the result of your test. You pass or fail based upon what you desire. You have a choice about being a child of God. You have a choice about loving God with all your heart, soul, and with all of your might. You have a choice about accepting Christ into your heart and life.