The Choices We Make

Years ago as a youth I would read the book series called, "Choose your own adventure".  It was a book that allowed the reader to follow along the story and at key points in the book the reader was required to choose from a few different scenarios, which allowed you to feel apart of the story.

Sometimes those choices led to victory others it led to less than desirable results. The moral to this story is that you could make a choice and not have someone tell you how the story would end. You ultimately determined the outcome of the story based on the decisions you made.

Do you remember the movie 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'?

There is a portion of this movie that shows what rejection of truth can lead to...



Indiana succeeds and finds himself in a room with the last Knight, kept alive for seven hundred years with the power of the Grail, which has been hidden among dozens of other cups. Elsa selects a gilded cup encrusted in jewels for Donovan; when Donovan drinks from it, he rapidly decays and crumbles into dust. Indiana, recognizing that the Grail would be that of a humble carpenter instead of a wealthy king, selects the plainest-looking wooden cup in the group, which turns out to be the correct vessel. He fills it with water and quickly takes it to his father, pouring the holy water onto his chest and giving it to him to drink, which instantly heals his gunshot wound. As they prepare to leave, the Knight warns them to not take the Grail past the great seal in the temple's floor, but Elsa disobeys, causing the temple to collapse. Elsa falls to her death into an abyss because she will not give Indiana the free hand with which she is trying to grab the Grail; Indiana nearly suffers the same fate until his father convinces him to let it go by calling him by his preferred name for the first time. The Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah narrowly escape the collapsing temple, while the Knight watches them with his mission accomplished. The four then ride out of the canyon, and into the sunset.

Reference: Indiana_Jones_and_the_Last_Crusade

As we know things in real life are much different than the movies. Movies are fantasy, whereas, our lives are real stories being played out daily. Our choices have an eternal impact. When someone dies in the movies due to poor choices or unforeseen circumstances it moves on to the next scene and we never really think twice about their eternal destination. In the script we call life, we too have adventures and choices to make; much like in Indiana Jones and 'Choose Your Own Adventure' where God gives us the opportunity to make choices too. This is what is called free will. He doesn't make up our minds for us. He allows us to choose how we want to walk through this life He has blessed us with. Sometimes we make wise decisions and other times we make not so wise ones. He still loves us regardless if we make poor decisions. Just like my earthly father would instruct me, God instructs us too when we choose poorly. It is a learning opportunity and we must decide if we will embrace the correction or reject it.

Embracing the correction will lead us down a path of righteousness and success. It will mold us and shape us into maturity. Rejecting the love and correction will only make things worse and can lead to destruction. When we refuse to make wise choices and reject counsel and correction it shows our lack of maturity. In the movie, the last Knight responds to the character Donovan after he is greedy and drinks from the jeweled cup saying, "You have chosen poorly". When Indiana Jones drinks from the cup that is plain the Knight expresses, "You have chosen wisely". 

Once again, God gives us free will and we have the option to choose. When we reject truth and what is right it will lead you down the path of rebellion, destruction and possibly death, but when we choose wisely and follow the Way, the Truth and the Life our lives will be blessed. This does not mean bad things won't happen. Life isn't always peaches and cream. We live in a fallen world that is full of sin and corruption. This is why it is so important to choose wisely and walk in truth and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is my desire to 'choose wisely' and hear my Heavenly Father express to me when He calls me home, "Well done thy good and faithful servant!"

So when you come to that fork in the road where you must make a decision, pray about it and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into making a wise decision. When we listen to the voice of Truth we are always choosing wisely.