Wednesday, August 15, 2018

“Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious - the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.” (Philippians 4:8, The Message Bible)

                “You need to make better choices.”

                Our five-year-old grandson, William, hears this admonition on a semi-regular basis. It usually happens just after he has “tormented” his three-year old brother, Henry, in some fashion – as big brothers are wont to do. (Susan and I cringe at some of the horror stories which Nathaniel tells about Nicholas, even though, by some miracle they are good friends as adults.)

                William will run by and swat or push or touch or interfere with or wilfully taunt his little brother. Henry cries and then William is given The Lecture: “You need to make better choices.”  I suspect that as far as he was concerned, it was a perfectly reasonable, good choice at the time, along with its desired effects.

 I should also point out that we, little brothers, can be very sneaky in a passive aggressive sort of way for getting our big brothers into trouble. When I was about nine or ten I and my older brother (by seven years) were roughhousing and somehow, I managed to throw him over my shoulder and onto the floor. Our mother scolded him for being too rough! It doesn’t always work. When I about seven I shot my  big sister in the forehead with a rubber dart while she was doing her homework at the dining room table. Apparently, according to my mother, I could have made a better choice – although I don’t think they were quite the words she used.

But the advice is sound. We all need to make better choices.

When our new, current provincial government cuts an income programme for the poor, slashes in half an increase to social assistance, cancels environmental programs and grants and gives us dollar beer - you need to make better choices, Mr. Premier.

When Donald Trump… well, don’t get me started.  You need to make better choices, Mr. President!

But it is easy to point out the speck in my kindred’s eyes without attending to the log in my own eyes. I could write a book on the occasions where I could have and should have made better choices – as a husband, father, pastor, friend, etc.  Hindsight, as they say is always twenty/twenty.  You need to make better choices, Mr. Soble.

Eons ago, God spoke to his beloved people about the choices they were being faced with. “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life.” (Deuteronomy 30: 19-20)

Love for God and others is always a good choice – a still more excellent way, as Paul once described love. Making choices based on God’s example of Love is a good moral compass. It is not always easy. It is not always even fair. It is not always convenient. It may seem costly. It may conflict with dogma and world-views. It may stretch our limits and spill over our boundaries. It may challenge us to make better choices as to what we make of our lives and relationships. But Love is always the better choice: “Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus said. This, more than anything I can think of, is the authentic Gospel of hope and redemption for humankind.

In its light, we need to make better choices. 

Dale