Life's Choices
One of the givens in life is that in almost every situation we are confronted by choices. This is not some great revelation to you, you make choices every day. Fortunately most of the situations where you need to make a choice are mundane. You walk into a restaurant and you look at the menu and order something. Or, you decide to drive to work today and not take the bus. You make choices all the time and most of the time do not even realize it. But you and I do shelter ourselves from making a decision. I have joked that I became a pastor because I don’t have to decide what to wear every day – black pants and black shirt. On those rare occasions when I go out to eat I order the same thing. These are just two simple examples of my effort to reduce the number of decisions I need to make. I suspect that you are not much different.
Making decisions is difficult because, when we decide, we choose one thing over other possibilities. What if we choose the wrong thing? What if we cannot go back and start over? For most decisions, like ordering lunch, we can go back. For others we must accept the outcome. It may not surprise you but most of the counseling that I have done over the years has been with people who are struggling with a decision that they have to make or the consequence of one they did make. It is no wonder that people work to avoid making decisions.
In the book Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm deals with this. He also saw how people disliked making decisions and the techniques they used to avoid them. Peer pressure is one of them. If you are afraid of what people think about you and of not fitting in, you will choose what they choose. Some exploit this tendency and become the one that everyone wants to be like. Although they often are as insecure as everyone else or worse. They use your insecurity to make money off you. Just watch television advertisements. Most of them are based on peer pressure – although there is no real “peer,” just a corporation making you spend your money on something that you probably do not need.
According to Fromm, it does not stop there. This desire to avoid decisions becomes all inclusive of our lives. He reminds us of how totalitarian states come about. People, afraid of losing their things, family, and selves will latch onto someone who claims he or she is the best person to be in charge because they will protect those things. People believe this and support that person and, when it’s too late, learns their promise wasn’t true. A study of Nazi Germany will show this.
That is also the story of God’s people. In Deuteronomy we hear Moses telling the people that they have two choices – life or death; blessings or curses. While life was offered, we see how many times they chose death. Instead of seeing the blessings from God, they chased after the world and ended up with curses. Paul’s letter to Philemon is another example of the freedom God has given us to choose. While, Paul writes, he could order Philemon to receive Onesimus with open arms and free him from slavery, instead he asks him to act out of love. That is our same call. We are called to live in the freedom that is given to us through Christ Jesus. We no longer need to be afraid of our decisions because we have already been awarded the prize. If you choose and it is wrong you will be forgiven. How many times did you forgive the missteps of a child? You did so out of love. God is the same. We are called to live our life by following Jesus. Which makes what we decide ever more important because the world will experience Jesus through us.
As you look at your life and the things God has given you remember Jesus’ call. The call to share the gifts of God with the world. As Paul reminded Philemon and Moses reminded the Israelites, choose life and blessings; share the love of God with those you meet this week.