Leaning Forward

Earlier this week, I was forced to have one of those infamous “intervention” meetings with one of our clients. He was released from prison about six months ago and was on the verge of going back to jail. This guy was really struggling. His daughter was in an abusive relationship, he had fallen behind on his rent, and he made commitments to friends that he was not living up to. As our conversation continued, he admitted to using again. He followed his admission of guilt with the words, “I didn’t think I had another choice.” I know that response may seem asinine to most of us, but for an addict they truly believe that there are no other options. The truth is, he had a lot of choices, but before we start throwing stones, I wonder how many of us would be honest and say that there have been times when we felt like we didn’t have any other choice?

There is a polarizing debate in this country over abortion. Pro-life? Pro choice? Somewhere in this debate we have gotten the impression that the freedom to choose makes us free. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not the freedom to choose that makes us free, it’s the choices we make in that freedom that make us free.  The more bad choices you make, the fewer choices you get. If you choose to commit a crime then you’re going to prison and someone else is going to tell you when to get up, when to go to bed, what to eat and when to eat. If you choose to walk away from your family, someone else will tell you when you can and cannot see your children.

  I didn’t think I had another choice

Maybe life hasn’t “worked” out the way we wanted it to, not because God wasn’t with us or for us. Life has come up short because we’ve made poor choices.  Life is the sum total of the choices we’ve made. We all have regrets, but I just wonder how many of us thought , in that moment of regret, that there wasn’t another choice? It was a lie. You and I were created to choose, and the truth is we have a lot of choices today. We can choose to forgive and not blame. We can choose to build not destroy. We can choose to live in the future and not the past. We can choose to love and not hate. We can choose to empower and not take away. We can choose life and not death.

Our choices either move us towards God and all the pleasure that comes in Him or they steer us away from Him to a life of shame and fear. God will NEVER take the freedom to choose away from us, regardless of the severity of the consequences. Why? Because for love to exist the freedom to choose has to exist. There is not a person reading this that hasn’t made poor choices, but despite that you still have another choice. Whatever your choice today it will be the material by which your tomorrow is made. What will you do with it?

My guess is that your sitting still while reading this blog, but the truth is you are moving. You are moving at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour. Planet earth will make one full rotation within the next 24 hours. By the end of that time you will have traveled 1.3 million miles around the sun (so that’s why I’m so tired).  It’s strange how we have a tendency to forget this!

I have a habit of taking things like this for granted. All of my “issues” seem to overshadow the fact that I exist on a planet that is dangling in space. I don’t mean to make light of life’s “issues” because they can be daunting, painful, and real. I work with people everyday that wonder where their next meal is going to come from, where they will lie their head down, and if they will ever be free from their addiction to alcohol and drugs. Some of you are struggling to get the bills paid. Some of you are dealing with the loss of a loved one, a marriage that’s on the brink of extinction, or a depressing doctor’s report. True enough we may never understand why things happen the way they do, but we do know that the God that created us loves us. The One who knows the stars by name (all 100 billion of them in each of the 100 billion galaxies) is more than able, and He knows us by name as well.

God is more interested in us reaching out to Him in faith than He is answering our why. Faith never denies the facts, faith invites God into the facts. Only then will our natural become supernatural, and our common becomes uncommon. Let’s be honest though we’re uncomfortable with faith talk. Sometimes we speak of faith as a last resort. When we speak of faith, it’s in a tone of depletion. “Well, I just have to have faith that everything is going to work out.” I wonder in our own faith language if we don’t chase God away from us in the moments when He so desperately wants to show up. We’ve must  begin to speak life into our situations, despite the facts. We’ve got to start believing God. The Psalmist writes, “[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living!’ Psalm 27:3 What will become of us, if we do not believe God! He is able. After all, if He put the planets in place and keeps them there; He can handle our struggles.

When I was a young child my mother would prepare my lunch for school, and I would always request that she make my sandwich in “four halves” and I did not want the crust on the bread. I would not eat the sandwich unless she cut the crust off. Sometimes, my four year old nephew comes to stay with me, and I’ve noticed that he will not eat his sandwich unless the crust is cut off.  So when I make him a sandwich, I cut the crust off and throw in the garbage or give it to the dog. (unlike Connor and I, the dog enjoys the crust) What is it about the crust? There’s something about the outer end of the bread, the edge that’s left over, that’s just not very enticing. Does crust even serve any real purpose?

There is so much of our life that we treat like the crust on a PBJ sandwich.  Things that we don’t consider to be important or have any kind of significance that we just throw away. Things like a pocket full of change, a particular gift/talent, or extra time during the day. We cut it off and throw it away, when it could be used to brighten someone else’s day.  With our economy in the shape that it’s in, it would so easy to pinch every penny we can, but if all we think about is us, then the world shrinks to the size of us. Think for a moment how tipping someone at the drive-thru, or letting the person behind you at Wal-Mart go ahead of you, or sending an anonymous card to someone, or giving someone an impromptu compliment could influence the world around you for the better. Your random act of kindness  may go further than you could ever imagine. We think that in order to have an impact in the world that we have to do something that involves enormity and/or longevity. The truth is “no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” God doesn’t need much, just a willingness to sacrifice what he has already given us, and for us to say yes with what we have. Mother Theresa said it this way, “It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.” Love cannot exist apart from sacrifice and choice.

In 2009, I’ve been challenged not to throw the crust away. Every little bit that I have left over, (whatever is left on the edge) whether it’s .50 out of dollar that I can tip someone at the drive-thru, or letting someone behind me at Wal-Mart go ahead of me, I’m going to sow that in faith believing that God will use that to cause man to ask himself “what is different about him?” and just maybe they will begin a conversation and a journey with the God that created them and loves them.