The thousand right choices

Imagine a train full of peak-hour passengers traveling to work on a still and sunny morning. The carriage is silent except for the rustle of turning newspapers and the occasional respectful mummer of traveling friends. There is the background rhythm of clickety-clack as some look sleepily out of windows watching the due-laden world wiz by.

Now imagine at the next station in bursts a man and his two children. They instantly shatter this morning calm playing roughly and nosily. The man sits heavily down staring oblivious into the middle distance. Everybody in the carriage looks up, eyes lingering, judgments forming. A few push their papers higher against the intrusion. The children get rougher until one starts crying. The man, presumably the father, does not appear to notice. He sits blankly; unreadable. Outrageous!

Eventually a nearby passenger leans forward, gets the man’s attention and says with some sharpness in is voice, “Sir, please control your children”. Slowly the man registers what has been said, turning slowly to his children then back replies, “I’m sorry, we have just come from the hospital where their mother, my wife just died. They don’t know how to handle it. Neither do I.”.

Have you had those moments in your life when your view of something suddenly changes? You have formed your opinions and made your decisions and then something happens which turns everything on its head. I had one recently:

I was in Melbourne a few weeks ago, my home town. I have lived in Sydney now for more than 15 years and have no intention of returning. But every time I visit sentimental memories are stirred up and I find myself contemplating the worthiness, or otherwise, of my life.

My family is still there. My brother the entrepreneur now has three children. One sister runs sports centers as a qualified PE instructor and the other as a single mum just graduated as a registered nurse. My parents are both still together, which in itself is an achievement, aging gracefully silver.

As a family we have always liked and respected one another and infrequent disagreements have been tempered with humility and grace. But, what struck hard during my visit a few weeks back was how far we have diverged in terms of our faith.

We were all raised in the same home by parents who valued making Jesus central to all of one’s identity and actions. For the large part, and to their credit, they unambiguously practiced and promoted this creed. Each of us went through Sunday-school and youth groups run by a large and full-programmed church. Each of us at some point made commitments to submit our lives to Jesus and to follow his teachings. Yet despite a common starting point, here we are traveling very different and divergent paths.

I have stuck and strengthened those earlier commitments and find great purpose and meaning the deeper I go. I see the hand of God frequently in my circumstances providing for me, testing and training me. I believe I am growing more like him and hope one day to be, as it says in the book of James, “…be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.”

My siblings, on the other hand, have put aside the things of Christ and are each striking out in a different direction. It seems to me that they are each heading for disasters of their own making.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Galatians 6:7

It may well be that God, still believing in them, will use what is reaped to once again get their attention. I hope the best for them and I pray for them but at the end-of-the day we are all accountble for our own destiny and we reap that which we sow.

So I had a wake up call! A good upbringing and the youthful acceptance of Christ is not enough to see you through. The path we walk is the consequence of a thousand real-time decisions any one of which leads into the wilderness or into the light. The matter of faith is a battle for the hearts and minds of humankind.

This is all has special relevance for me. I have a young family, three kids under six, and I desperately want them to discover Jesus for themselves and to make the thousand right choices so they might stand before God on judgment day with their head held high. My ability as a parent is plainly not enough. I can model a good and faithful life to my children, I can love them and love my wife, I can teach the truth which is the gospel but all of this provides me with no assurance. They will as adults make their own decisions. I can pray and hope and love and teach but this just gets them to the beginning of the right path; the hard choices are yet to come. For all of us it is a question of surrender and surrender implies great personal cost – how way are you prepared to go?

Like the man in the train I thought my perspective was right. I had held loosely to my faith, taking it for granted. But my Melbourne visit brought into sharp focus what a delicate and precious thing is faith – it needs to be fought for!

So I want to remind you of something crucially important: our faith is a precious and rare thing. It is not like the construction of building which with basic maintenance will stand a thousand years. It is a fire to be kept alight on a stormy night. We have to stand vigil, fuelling it and protecting with our lives. Let’s together lock onto the promises of God which give us a picture of the eternal and the reward which awaits those of us who persist despite hardship and difficulties.

Jesus said,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-15).

Only a few! These are very serious words and we should take them seriously. The narrow gate is not membership of a religious institution or tradition. The narrow gate has nothing to do with a moral life, though this does have intrinsic value in its own right. It’s not about ideology. The narrow gate that Jesus speaks of is the relentless pursuit of God himself. It is the single minded and uncompromising love of your heart, your soul and your mind. The narrow gate leads to life and life everlasting.

The standard that this represents is frankly beyond me and I suspect also beyond you. Thankfully there is one who stands in our place when the scales of judgement come out - Jesus. The bible teaches us that Jesus will take upon himself the due penalty for our failure to make this standard. That by placing our faith in him we can be absolved of guilt, redeemed, renewed, washed and cleansed. All of this for placing your faith in Jesus – which is the heart of each of the thousand right choices we must make.

So take the matter of faith in Jesus seriously and fight to protect that which the bible and God’s revelation tells you is true, because this faith will become your path to redemption and the bridge to eternity.