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HARD CHOICES
#1 · May 20, 2004, 2:47 pm
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
HARD CHOICES
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
I guess the greatest temptation any speaker has is to overstate
his or her case. I heard recently about a temperance speaker who was
lecturing on the evils of liquor.
"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."
(Myron Cohen, THE MYRON COHEN JOKE BOOK, (New York: Gramercy
Publishing Company, 1978), pp. 79-80. ) The speaker didn't realize he
was presenting them with a choice.
Moses was delivering to the children of Israel the covenant he
had received from God. There was no danger that he would overstate
his case. He had no choice but to deliver a hard message. The stakes
were high. 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." (v19)
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, ARE WE NOT?
Some of them are very minor choices. Think of all the choices you
made getting ready for the day this morning--which tie? which blouse?
do I shave? etc.
Some choices are really not choices at all. Frequent fliers
will undoubtedly sympathize with the passengers on a cross-country
flight who 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 do not be distressed, as all
our entrees taste very much the same." (Richard Lederer, MORE
ANGUISHED ENGLISH, (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc., 1993). ) Let's see, was that an airline that made that
announcement or was that a hospital? Some choices are no choice at
all.
In rural Arizona, a man went to see the Hopi Indians perform
ceremonial dances. It was a long lonely drive to the reservation
across secluded desert terrain, and the last 65 miles of it was over
very rough roads. Late afternoon, after the dances, the man returned
to his car only to discover he had a flat tire. To make matters
worse, he had no spare in his trunk. But he remembered seeing a lone
service station about 5 miles back down the road. After getting a
ride to the service station, he found the elderly proprietor sitting
in a chair drinking a soda. The stranded man asked, "Excuse me, sir,
but do you fix flats?" The proprietor said, "Yep." So the man asked,
"How much do you charge?" The proprietor replied, "What difference
does it make?" (EXECUTIVE SPEAKER'S NEWSLETTER) Obviously the man was
in no position to bargain.
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.
Some time back the newspapers carried the obituary of Group
Capt. Peter Townsend, a dashing World War II fighter pilot. Some of
you are old enough to recognize that name. It was he who loved and
lost Princess Margaret and then went into more than 30 years of self-
imposed exile from Great Britain. He was 80 when he died.
made getting ready for the day this morning--which tie? which blouse?
do I shave? etc.
Some choices are really not choices at all. Frequent fliers
will undoubtedly sympathize with the passengers on a cross-country
flight who 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 do not be distressed, as all
our entrees taste very much the same." (Richard Lederer, MORE
ANGUISHED ENGLISH, (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc., 1993). ) Let's see, was that an airline that made that
announcement or was that a hospital? Some choices are no choice at
all.
In rural Arizona, a man went to see the Hopi Indians perform
ceremonial dances. It was a long lonely drive to the reservation
across secluded desert terrain, and the last 65 miles of it was over
very rough roads. Late afternoon, after the dances, the man returned
to his car only to discover he had a flat tire. To make matters
worse, he had no spare in his trunk. But he remembered seeing a lone
service station about 5 miles back down the road. After getting a
ride to the service station, he found the elderly proprietor sitting
in a chair drinking a soda. The stranded man asked, "Excuse me, sir,
but do you fix flats?" The proprietor said, "Yep." So the man asked,
"How much do you charge?" The proprietor replied, "What difference
does it make?" (EXECUTIVE SPEAKER'S NEWSLETTER) Obviously the man was
in no position to bargain.
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.
Some time back the newspapers carried the obituary of Group
Capt. Peter Townsend, a dashing World War II fighter pilot. Some of
you are old enough to recognize that name. It was he who loved and
lost Princess Margaret and then went into more than 30 years of self-
imposed exile from Great Britain. He was 80 when he died.
Capt. Townsend left Britain after Margaret, bowing to a
disapproving establishment, told the nation October 31, 1955, she had
decided not to marry Townsend because he was divorced. The romance
between Capt. Townsend and the young princess, 16 years his junior,
became public in 1953. It was a year after his divorce and the year
Elizabeth was crowned monarch and temporal head of the Church of
England, which frowned on divorce. Amid a furor which reverberated
through Britain and its Commonwealth of former colonies, the much-
decorated war ace was banished from the palace on the advice of Prime
Minister Sir Winston Churchill to a diplomatic post in Brussels. But
the romance survived until 1955 when Margaret, then age 25 and third
in line to the throne, made her final decision.
"She could have married me," Capt. Townsend wrote in his 1978
autobiography, only if she had been prepared to give up everything--
her position, her prestige, her privy purse. I simply hadn't the
weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost."
(LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, June 21, 1995, p. B2)
Choices, choices, choices--so many choices. We may never have
to choose between true love and a throne, but we still have choices.
OF COURSE THE SAD THING IS THAT FOR BETTER OR WORSE WE HAVE TO
LIVE WITH THE CHOICES WE MAKE.
disapproving establishment, told the nation October 31, 1955, she had
decided not to marry Townsend because he was divorced. The romance
between Capt. Townsend and the young princess, 16 years his junior,
became public in 1953. It was a year after his divorce and the year
Elizabeth was crowned monarch and temporal head of the Church of
England, which frowned on divorce. Amid a furor which reverberated
through Britain and its Commonwealth of former colonies, the much-
decorated war ace was banished from the palace on the advice of Prime
Minister Sir Winston Churchill to a diplomatic post in Brussels. But
the romance survived until 1955 when Margaret, then age 25 and third
in line to the throne, made her final decision.
"She could have married me," Capt. Townsend wrote in his 1978
autobiography, only if she had been prepared to give up everything--
her position, her prestige, her privy purse. I simply hadn't the
weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost."
(LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, June 21, 1995, p. B2)
Choices, choices, choices--so many choices. We may never have
to choose between true love and a throne, but we still have choices.
OF COURSE THE SAD THING IS THAT FOR BETTER OR WORSE 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.
I had a good laugh at a story in the newspapers sometime back
about a teacher who found a novel way to make students pay for their
transgressions. Troublemakers at Riverside-Brookfield High in
suburban Chicago are being forced to serve after-school sentences in
the Frank Sinatra Detention Club. There, for 30 minutes, they must
sit utterly still--no talking, no homework, no snoozing--and listen
to Ol'Blue Eyes croon songs from a by-gone era. "The kids hate it.
They're miserable," reports teacher Bruce Janu, a Sinatra fan who
devised the club as a way to make detention more fun for him, less so
for the kids."It just got to where I couldn't stand it," said one
senior. "It was SO BORING." Janu isn't totally heartless though. He
lets students sing along if they want--but nobody does. (LIFE, Nov.
92, p. 21)
It is important for young people to learn at an early age that
choices have consequences. In terms of their later success, it is one
of the most important lessons that they will learn. Adults who are
continually bailing their children out when they make mistakes are
cheating their children of one of life's most important lessons: we
reap what we sow. Someone has put it this way. There are two major
pains in life: the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Think
about that for a moment: the pain of discipline or the pain of
regret.
Some time back I read an interview with actress Martha Scott.
When asked about the great amount of energy it takes to rehearse and
then act, she said, "It's . . . exhausting. It takes enormous energy
and stamina, much more than meets the eye." Scott once asked actress
Lucille Ball how she could work 13 hours a day as a performer in
television and also function as a producer behind the scenes. Lucy
said, "Get plenty of rest. Save your energy. Whenever you can sit,
sit. Don't spread yourself thin with social activity." Scott said it
was a professional, real-life extension of something she'd first
heard as a college girl acting in school plays. Her theater arts
director wouldn't even let her go to a football game. Their school
was very big on football, but when she mentioned going to the game,
the director really chewed her out. He said, "If you're serious about
acting, you'd better know it's like taking the veil in church. You
give up other pleasures. You can't use your vocal chords at a
football game Saturday afternoon and expect to have a speaking voice
Saturday night on the stage." In effect, life is a matter of choices
on the road to a goal. (LOS ANGELES TIMES HOME magazine, July 25,
1976, p. 39. Cited in James Hewett, HOW TO LIVE CONFIDENTLY IN A
HOSTILE WORLD, (Wheaton, IL: Word Publishing, 1989), pp. 189-190. )
Choices. We have to make choices. 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 short-
cuts, 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. I hope I don't sound too
preachy. Forget that I am a pastor. Any sound psychologist would say
the same to you. Any successful business leader, any competent
doctor. 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.
And this brings us to the last thing we need to say:
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.
I had a good laugh at a story in the newspapers sometime back
about a teacher who found a novel way to make students pay for their
transgressions. Troublemakers at Riverside-Brookfield High in
suburban Chicago are being forced to serve after-school sentences in
the Frank Sinatra Detention Club. There, for 30 minutes, they must
sit utterly still--no talking, no homework, no snoozing--and listen
to Ol'Blue Eyes croon songs from a by-gone era. "The kids hate it.
They're miserable," reports teacher Bruce Janu, a Sinatra fan who
devised the club as a way to make detention more fun for him, less so
for the kids."It just got to where I couldn't stand it," said one
senior. "It was SO BORING." Janu isn't totally heartless though. He
lets students sing along if they want--but nobody does. (LIFE, Nov.
92, p. 21)
It is important for young people to learn at an early age that
choices have consequences. In terms of their later success, it is one
of the most important lessons that they will learn. Adults who are
continually bailing their children out when they make mistakes are
cheating their children of one of life's most important lessons: we
reap what we sow. Someone has put it this way. There are two major
pains in life: the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Think
about that for a moment: the pain of discipline or the pain of
regret.
Some time back I read an interview with actress Martha Scott.
When asked about the great amount of energy it takes to rehearse and
then act, she said, "It's . . . exhausting. It takes enormous energy
and stamina, much more than meets the eye." Scott once asked actress
Lucille Ball how she could work 13 hours a day as a performer in
television and also function as a producer behind the scenes. Lucy
said, "Get plenty of rest. Save your energy. Whenever you can sit,
sit. Don't spread yourself thin with social activity." Scott said it
was a professional, real-life extension of something she'd first
heard as a college girl acting in school plays. Her theater arts
director wouldn't even let her go to a football game. Their school
was very big on football, but when she mentioned going to the game,
the director really chewed her out. He said, "If you're serious about
acting, you'd better know it's like taking the veil in church. You
give up other pleasures. You can't use your vocal chords at a
football game Saturday afternoon and expect to have a speaking voice
Saturday night on the stage." In effect, life is a matter of choices
on the road to a goal. (LOS ANGELES TIMES HOME magazine, July 25,
1976, p. 39. Cited in James Hewett, HOW TO LIVE CONFIDENTLY IN A
HOSTILE WORLD, (Wheaton, IL: Word Publishing, 1989), pp. 189-190. )
Choices. We have to make choices. 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 short-
cuts, 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. I hope I don't sound too
preachy. Forget that I am a pastor. Any sound psychologist would say
the same to you. Any successful business leader, any competent
doctor. 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.
And this brings us to the last thing we need to say:
GOD'S WILL IS THAT WE MAKE CHOICES THAT WILL LEAD TO LIFE.
God says to the people through Moses: "I have set before you life
and death . . . therefore choose life, that both you and your seed
may live."
That was a lesson that Mel Trotter had to learn the hard way.
For much of his life Trotter was a hopeless alcoholic. He came home
after one ten-day drinking spree to find his baby dead in his wife's
arms. "I've killed my son," he cried. "I'll never touch another
drop." But two hours after his baby's funeral, Mel Trotter staggered
home--drunk again. He had taken the little white shoes off his baby
in the coffin and pawned them for money to buy drink. In utter
despair he headed along a Chicago street for Lake Michigan. But on
the way the strong arm of Harry Monroe, Superintendent of Pacific
Garden Mission, pulled him inside a hall where the Gospel was being
preached. That night suicidal Mel Trotter heard that there was a hope
in Christ. He became a Christian and for the next 40 years served as
superintendent of a rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From
this base he started 60 other gospel missions in U.S. cities, all
designed to reach down-and-outers for Christ. He counseled thousands
of would-be suicides, putting them on the road to happiness and
Heaven. ( A. Dudley Dennison M.D., SHOCK IT TO ME DOCTOR! (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1970), p. 84.) Mel Trotter
chose to turn from death to life.
Our situation is not apt to be as desperate as Mel Trotter's
but still there are choices you and I make every day that determine
the quality of our lives and the quality of our relationships. God's
will for each of us is to make choices that lead to abundant life.
It's like an incident that Benjamin Franklin related in his
autobiography. An English clergyman was once ordered to read a
special proclamation issued by King Charles I. After a period in
which the country had observed strict blue laws, the king issued a
decree urging to people to return to participating in sports on
Sunday.
Most church leaders refused to read the edict. But to one
congregation's amazement, their minister read the king's decree. But
he followed the pronouncement with these words, "Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy." And he added, "Brethren, I have laid before you
the commandment of your king and the commandment of your God. I leave
it to you to judge which of the two ought to be observed." (Neil
Eskelin, YES YES LIVING IN A NO NO WORLD, (New Jersey: Logos
International, 1980), p. 122.)
As a pastor I would not presume to make your choices for
you. But as not only your pastor, but also your friend, I would
remind you that 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. Let
us, therefore, choose life.
and death . . . therefore choose life, that both you and your seed
may live."
That was a lesson that Mel Trotter had to learn the hard way.
For much of his life Trotter was a hopeless alcoholic. He came home
after one ten-day drinking spree to find his baby dead in his wife's
arms. "I've killed my son," he cried. "I'll never touch another
drop." But two hours after his baby's funeral, Mel Trotter staggered
home--drunk again. He had taken the little white shoes off his baby
in the coffin and pawned them for money to buy drink. In utter
despair he headed along a Chicago street for Lake Michigan. But on
the way the strong arm of Harry Monroe, Superintendent of Pacific
Garden Mission, pulled him inside a hall where the Gospel was being
preached. That night suicidal Mel Trotter heard that there was a hope
in Christ. He became a Christian and for the next 40 years served as
superintendent of a rescue mission in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From
this base he started 60 other gospel missions in U.S. cities, all
designed to reach down-and-outers for Christ. He counseled thousands
of would-be suicides, putting them on the road to happiness and
Heaven. ( A. Dudley Dennison M.D., SHOCK IT TO ME DOCTOR! (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1970), p. 84.) Mel Trotter
chose to turn from death to life.
Our situation is not apt to be as desperate as Mel Trotter's
but still there are choices you and I make every day that determine
the quality of our lives and the quality of our relationships. God's
will for each of us is to make choices that lead to abundant life.
It's like an incident that Benjamin Franklin related in his
autobiography. An English clergyman was once ordered to read a
special proclamation issued by King Charles I. After a period in
which the country had observed strict blue laws, the king issued a
decree urging to people to return to participating in sports on
Sunday.
Most church leaders refused to read the edict. But to one
congregation's amazement, their minister read the king's decree. But
he followed the pronouncement with these words, "Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy." And he added, "Brethren, I have laid before you
the commandment of your king and the commandment of your God. I leave
it to you to judge which of the two ought to be observed." (Neil
Eskelin, YES YES LIVING IN A NO NO WORLD, (New Jersey: Logos
International, 1980), p. 122.)
As a pastor I would not presume to make your choices for
you. But as not only your pastor, but also your friend, I would
remind you that 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. Let
us, therefore, choose life.
...
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