This or That?

Reading: Ruth 1:6-14

“Choose for yourselves  this day whom you will serve”  (Josh 24:15)

Everything is a choice in life. We make many  choices in a day— what to  wear,  what to  cook  and  where to go.  There are  major choices in life like what course to study, whom  to marry, or what career to pursue. There are  also  fine  choices like  what to say  or when  to look  away.  These choices charter our  course in life.  We travel the  path of our  choices. That’s why it is important that we choose  the  right thing.

Eve made one wrong choice and an earthquake shook  the world. Shame, punishment and  the pronouncement of death altered the course of her life  permanently. She  chose  the Tree  of Knowledge instead of the Tree of Life, satan’s voice instead of God’s (Gen 3:1-6).

One day Ruth faced  a crucial choice  either to go to her mother or mother-in-law. She  chose  life.  It was  this right turn and  right choice  that led  her  to bliss. Her  life  hung on  that momentary decision which  changed the  entire course of her  life  (Ruth  1:14- 18). That vital decision brought into her life the One who gives  life.

“All through my life, I had  the  choice  of love and  hate. I chose love  and  I  am  here,” said  the world-renowned musician A.R. Rahman at the  Oscars. Happiness is a choice and we must choose to be happy. Life is a choice  and  we must choose  to live.

So how do we choose? Is there a foolproof  method to make the right choice?  God helps  us.  He  says: “I have  set  before  you  life and  death, blessings and  curses. Now choose  life ...”  (Dt 30:19). One  more  crossroads given  in  the  Bible  is,  “Enter through the narrow gate. For  wide is the gate  and broad  is the  road  that leads to destruction, and  many  enter through it. But small is the  gate and  narrow the  road  that leads  to life, and  only a few find it” (Mt 7:13,14). Choose  to be one of the few.

Whatever choice is before  you, prayerfully consider which  will lead you towards life. God is your Father who is more than willing to point  His  finger at the  right choice.  You can  hear the  Spirit of God telling you which way to go. Your faithful, true and inseparable companion, your conscience, will  not  let  you down.  If it is  not  a life-and-death choice,  use  your common sense.

When  you don’t know  what to do, do what you think is right.