A Life Of Choices...

Advanced apology; I haven't gone to great depths to prepare for this post. Future posts will be more thought out.

We all have to make choices. We have to choose whether to order a Crunchie Mc Flurry, or a Wispa Mc Flurry (for most of you the choice will be the latter, I never did get what was so good about the wispa...) We have to choose whether we want toast, or cereal for breakfast (for some, maybe even both...) We have a lot of choices. But not just everyday ones at that. We've had to decide where we go to school, to church, what we do at the weekend, what we do in our spare time, when we study...You get the picture.



I recently read a blog post by Nicole, talking about life choices. She has been considering what she wants to do for a career. A message for her first;



Nicole, if you decide to go into nursing, be prepared. My mum did nursing, and she says that the work is double that of the Leaving Cert...Just thought I'd let you know. After all that's what friends are for...:P


Back to the point. It was interesting, I had done a careers project last year in Trans Year. I think everyone's experience of doing a career's project is different. While some my find the prospect of having to do a project based on what you will more than likely pursue as your career daunting, I found relatively un-daunting (if there is such a word.) By now, if you know me, you'll know that I plan on doing Mechanical Engineering in UCD...but that's not my career. God has called me to become a part of youth ministry/ministry in some form. This is a story for another time.

What's amazing is the fact the seriousness of the decision. This is more than likely going to decide what job you get. Of course there is always the prospect of doing another course in a totally different career, but who wants to go through another minimum of 4 years education?

Choices like this can be hard. And this isn't the only hard one. Choices of whether or not you budget your finances, who you date, are you ready to marry this person...Hard choices crop up everywhere...

God has had some tough decisions to make as well. But without those decisions, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Quite recently, I was asked by a friend in school, "Why did God create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil if he knew that we as humans would take advantage and eat the fruit anyway, despite the fact that God told them not to?" For a minute I was stunned. Let me explain. Alot of the people in my school are...well...lets just say that they aren't as in tune with theology as some of us. So the fact that this guy was asking this question in the first place was quite something.

Why did God create that tree? If he is all knowing, then surely he could have seen it coming. For a long period of my life, I struggled to answer this question. Then while reading a book by Max Lucado, it all became clear.

Lets say that the fall of man never occurred, because the tree was never created. Never. Everything is fine and dandy between us and God...except for the fact that we're now no longer a race that God can love...because we have no free-will. God doesn't want us to love him because he says so. He wants us to love him because we want to. Without free will, we'd be no longer human...we'd just be a shell of the people that God had destined to be.

That's why he created the tree...to give us a choice; either to love him, or reject him. Unfortunately, Adam get mixed up between right and wrong, and because of that, we would be forever trapped in sin. Everything wrong in the world, from the Old Testament, right to the modern day, is because of sin. Alot of people say that because God created the tree, he created sin. But in fact, because God created the tree, he created free-will. We're the ones who created sin.

Jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, lust, greed, worry, pain, sorrow...all of these were created because of sin. We had dug ourselves into a rut, and it looked like no one was coming to save us.

God on the other hand had another idea.

The ultimate rescue plan. The redemption that would span millenia, but would last for eternity.





The man called Christ.

Jesus. The greatest person in the whole of human history. The very point on which all human life changed. God loved us so much, that just after the fall of man, he devised the greatest plot in all of time...to save all of mankind.

He loved us so much that he chose to send his only Son, so that He would take the place of us. The wrath of God poured out on Him, for the sin of all man.


Through His grace, we are free. Through God's choice, we are now called not only His children, but His friends.



We have a choice to make as well, just as Adam had. We are given the choice to love and follow God;

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.""

-Mathew 16 v 24

A lot of people say what you choose to do in college is the most important decision you will ever make. Others say who you marry is the biggest. But all of the worldly decisions are meaningless, compared to choosing to walk with our Savior. The biggest decision we will ever have to make, is whether or not we love God, but not only that, but that through loving Him, that we trust in Him, and obey His very word.

The road of Christ is not easy. Rather it is the single hardest thing that anyone will ever do. What awaits you in this world is ridicule, pain, sorrow, jealousy, despair...

But the happiness, the joy, the comfort, the peace that you will also feel will be enough to sustain you. And what awaits us at the end of our lives is something that no one can even comprehend...




Paradise...


Choose. Will you let Him be the Nexus in your life?





""...For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.""

-Jeremiah 29 v 11