“Think and wonder, wonder and think.” Dr. Seuss said that. I took his advice. I have been thinking and wondering, wondering and thinking. My pencil remained still, my computer too. That is unusual for me. I can write anywhere, under most circumstances, but lately, the words have not been coming together for me. It was time for a thinking and wondering and praying vacation. Things out there in the world have had my attention. As the moral compass of this great nation disintegrates, I am fearful of what we will leave behind for our children and grandchildren. God knows how I worry about mine and yours too, so He and I have been discussing the situation…a lot.
Here is what I know today. We must choose a side…the right side or the wrong side. There is no in-between. There are no gray areas. One needs only glance into social media to see most everyone is quite good at taking a side even though truth may not have anything to do with the choice a person makes. We, however, are no longer adolescents who imagine we need to be doing what everyone else is doing, to be agreeing with the opinions of the cool crowd, following others so they will follow us. We are adults. We do not need to be liked, and we do not need the likes. It is time we choose truth above all else.
C.S. Lewis put it best when he said, “When the author walks on to the stage the play is over…It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance it will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”(emphasis mine)
Anyone who has read Mr. Lewis knows which side he chose. It took him awhile, but when he sought wisdom in truthful places, he relinquished all power into God’s hands. Relinquishing power is not an easy thing to do, but when viewed from a biblical perspective God calls us to do exactly that. “LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23, NIV) People do have a choice in what or in whom they follow, whom they will serve.
That may sound trite to some, but then, not everyone’s worldview is biblical. There are those who deny, too, everything that does not come from faith is a sin. (Romans 14:23) The fractured society in which we live wants us to believe a different story, to travel a different path. The crowd begs, “Follow us. This is truth.” Truth says, “Both our bodies and our souls belong to God.” When we live as though that does not matter, we say to God, “Leave my body and my life to me. I can handle this.” Have we forgotten, if what we are doing, does not honor God…It is a sin. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
Calm thyself…those are God’s Words not mine. I have no intention of putting myself in the middle of a political battle here. My point is this…What we do with our bodies, the places we go, the things we do, the choices we make, the way we hinder or help others, the side we choose...All of it matters. If what we are doing, hurts someone or adversely affects them in any way…This, too, is a sin. “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall....We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.”(Romans 14:21;15:1, emphasis mine)
To both the strong and the weak the world says, “Seek that which is pleasing.” For far too long, we have bought that lie. We worry too much about what others are thinking and doing. We seek comfort and friendship in the world. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Either we choose to glorify God in all things, or we excuse away our sins, call them mistakes and persist in the evil we do. Satan is out their watching and waiting. God is too.
We all make decisions. Sometimes we make the right ones. Sometimes we do not. It can be difficult accepting personal responsibility for mistakes and the negative outcomes they create, but we should accept them for what they are and not fear the consequences. As Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested to his daughter, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all is good and fair. It is too dear, with hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.”
Call them what you will…blunders, absurdities…our lives are never going to be free from them. We are human, and in our humanness, we will make mistakes. We need to let our mistakes go, learn from them then leave them behind, but, at the same time, we must stop passing off our sins as simple mistakes. Mistakes and sins are not the same thing. The truth is…Sometimes we stumble. Sometimes we fall. How we view our sins will determine how far we fall. Excusing our sins as mere mistakes gives us permission to continue our lives of sin. Pretending ignorance justifies nothing. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”(1 Peter 1:14-16) Every decision, every choice must begin with truth not someone’s opinion or idea of what should be true or what they desire truth to be. There are plenty of opinions and ideas swirling around out there, but truth is there too. We simply have to know where to find it, and once discovered, we must choose absolute truth. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
One day God will hold us accountable for our sins. On that day we will not be able to plead ignorance. There will be no excusing our sins, calling them mistakes or blaming the things we have done on others. The side we choose today matters. God’s light shines onto one side, and into the other, there is nothing but darkness and despair. The stakes are too high not to choose rightly. “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.”(Romans 1:28)
Immersing ourselves in God’s Word and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we become mature and faithful men and women of God, holy as He is holy. “…God demonstrates his great love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8) He holds out His hands, but He will not wait forever. “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—a people who continually provoke me to my very face….” (Read Isaiah 65) In the end we must choose. Will it be God or will it be something else? Think. Wonder. Pray.