More is less

   Life's Most Critical Choice!                  

    Barry Schwartz reported in the AARP Bulletin that Americans are inundated with choices (“Too Many Choices”;  April, 2005, p 14). He said it had been a while since he had bought a pair of jeans, so he went to the Gap to purchase a pair. The sales clerk confronted him with a plethora of choices: did he want slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy or extra baggy, stone-washed, acid-washed or distressed? Another choice was button-fly or zipper-fly. And also faded or regular. Schwarz wrote, “I was stunned. . .

The trouble was there was no such thing as ‘regular’ jeans anymore.” He wrote there were “eighty-five types of crackers. Two hundred eighty-five types of cookies. Eighty pain relievers. Thousands of mutual funds.  Hundreds of cell phones, dozens of calling plans. And so many TV shows that people tape the ones they don’t have to time to watch – and never have time to watch the ones they tape. Wherever we turn, we face mind boggling choices.” The article also presented research which strongly suggested that the over-abundance of choices we face sometimes produces not liberation and happiness but paralysis and frustration – how can you possibly know which choice is best among so many? The article suggests sometimes more is less.

We face choices that affect our souls, too. The Bible frequently calls people to choose. Long ago Moses told God’s people in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants shall live.” Later in Joshua 24:15, Joshua challenged ancient Israelites to make a choice between the true God and the many idolatrous “gods” saturating Canaan – “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Later still, at a time of widespread idolatry and immorality in Israel during the reign of the wicked King Ahab and his vulgar wife Jezebel, the prophet Elijah called God’s people to get off the fence and make a choice – “How long will you falter between two opinions?  If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).

Choose! That’s the challenge the Bible lays down again and again.

Destiny-determining choices – God or money, sin or salvation, heaven or hell, a narrow and difficult way that leads to life, or a wide and broad way that ends at the gates of hell. Matthew 27:22 presents what Christians have believed for 2,000 years is life’s most critical choice. There the Roman governor Pontius Pilate made a feeble and futile attempt to reason with an unthinking mob as they demanded he release Barabbas, a notorious prisoner and criminal (vs 16), and crucify Jesus. In verse 27 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Since 1897, Albert Simpson’s magnificent song has asked that same question: “What Will You Do With Jesus?” The song stresses the supremely critical nature of your choice about Christ – “What will you do with Jesus, my friend? Neutral you cannot be: Someday your heart will be asking, O Friend, ‘What will He do with me?’”

You can love Jesus or loathe Him, accept or reject Him, serve or slander Him – but you cannot escape making a choice about Him and His claims on your life. What will Jesus do with you? That depends on what you choose to do with Him.

Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN