Choose Life, Choose Jesus

A temperance speaker was lecturing on the evils of liquor in a frontier town in the old
West.

“Who has the most money to spend?” he bellowed. “The saloon keeper! Who has the biggest house? The saloon keeper! Who has the finest furs and the most jewelry? The saloon keeper’s wife! And who pays for all this? You do, my friends, you do!”

A few days later, a couple who had been in the audience met the eloquent battler of booze in the street and congratulated him on the wonderful speech.

“I’m pleased to see that you’ve given up drinking,” the lecturer said.

“Well, not exactly,” admitted the man. “We bought a saloon.” The speaker didn’t realize he was presenting them with a choice.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, Moses was delivering to the children of Israel the covenant he had received from God. The very survival of his people was at stake. In the midst of Moses’ oration we find these critical words: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death . . . therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Deuteronomy as a whole is presented as a sermon by Moses to the people of Israel as they are camped on the far side of the Jordan River. They anticipate crossing it and entering the Promised Land very soon. The people have never been in Canaan or lived in any settled area. The generation that left Egypt at the time of the exodus has died in the wilderness, and these people Moses is addressing are their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, all born during the 40-year trek to Canaan.

So now the people are presented with a clear-cut choice, and there’s no third option. Not to choose the way of blessing is to choose the way of curse. Yes, we like to talk about “gray areas” and “ambiguous situations,” but Moses, having heard the word of the Lord, will have none of it. There are two ways and only two ways, he declares – God’s way and the other way – and we have to choose.

This is not just an Old Testament thing. Actually, Jesus said the same thing in other words: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30). No middle ground or third way is offered.

Moses was saying that a time of decision was at hand. The people of Israel could no longer walk on both sides of the fence. They must make a choice.

You and I are continually making choices. Some of them are very minor choices. Think of all the choices you made getting ready for church this morning: Which tie? Which blouse? What to have for breakfast?

Some choices are really not choices at all. Some of us remember when they served actual meals on airplanes. On one of those flights, passengers were considering the announced luncheon choices, chicken Marengo, beef burritos, or fruit salad. After announcing these choices the flight attendant added this useful piece of advice: “If you do not get your first choice, please don’t be distressed, as all our entrees taste very much the same.”

Some choices are an illusion. You really have no choice or the choice has little impact. Then, of course, there are those life-changing choices. Like going to college, choosing a profession, choosing a mate.

I remember my senior year in high school, when it was time for college applications. My parents said I could choose any in-state commuter college, since they could not afford to send me away to school. I wanted to go to Montclair State and major in history. But my ever practical mother opined that a history degree would not get me any sort of well-paying job after graduation. She suggested I go to New Jersey Institute of Technology and major in engineering instead. Although I had deep reservations, I listened to mom and tried mechanical engineering at NJIT.

Well, you can see how that choice worked out. I stand before you as an engineering school dropout who eventually graduated from college with a degree in history. Sometimes we should listen to our heart, rather than let others unduly influence us.

Speaking of schools, if you make bad choices at one particular suburban Chicago high school, you end up in Frank Sinatra Detention. Teacher Bruce Janu is a huge Sinatra fan and decided to punish students in detention by forcing them to listen to 30 straight minutes of Ole’ Blue Eyes crooning at high volume. As one might imagine, these after school sentences are excruciatingly painful for the offending teen-age students.

While some of us might prefer to say (or sing), “I did it my way,” at times we need others’ help to make a good choice.

In the book, Forrest Gump, there is a scene in which Forrest and his roommate at the University of Alabama have a serious problem. The friend’s car has a flat tire, and while the friend is changing it he drops the lug nuts into the sewer. The friend is very upset because the two of them are late for football practice. Their legendary coach, Bear Bryant of the Alabama Crimson Tide, would not tolerate this. The friend does not know what to do. So Forrest makes a suggestion, “Well, why don’t you take one nut off the other three tires, and then all four wheels will have three nuts. That should at least get us to practice.”

The friend looks at him. His face turns beet red with anger and embarrassment at the simplicity of Forrest’s suggestion. At the top of his lungs his friend screams, “I don’t understand how you could think of that. You’re an idiot!”

Forrest replies, “I may be an idiot, but at least I’m not stupid.”

Yes, when making a decision, it’s wise to consider all sources before making a choice.

We have to live with the choices we make. That was why Moses’ task was so critical. Much was at stake. Israel would have to live with the consequences of their decision. Make the right choice and they would prosper. Make the wrong choice and they would perish. One of the marks of maturity is the discovery that the choices we make have consequences. If we choose rightly, we reap rewards. If we choose wrongly, we sometimes pay a steep price.

The law of sowing and reaping has not been repealed. You sow a good life, a life of integrity, of kindness, of paying attention to your relationships with God and with your neighbor, of taking care of your body, mind and soul, and you will reap a good life of lasting friendships, better than average health, and a feeling of deep satisfaction within.

Try to take shortcuts, be a cheater, a slacker, a ne’er-do-well and eventually life will find you out. As the saying goes, time heals all wounds and wounds all heels. The choice is ours. You don’t have to live very long to discover this is the way life works. The sooner you learn to make good choices, the sooner you will find lasting happiness.

There are destructive choices and there are constructive choices. There are choices that will make you and those who love you stronger and there are choices that will wreck your life and theirs. All of tomorrow hinges on the choices you and I make.

Choose life. Choose Jesus. He assures us that he is the way, the truth, and the life. And let Christ help you with all the rest of your choices.