There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the Sun. Ecclesiastes 3:1
Perhaps
Perhaps I was supposed to live a different life. Perhaps one mistake along the way, one poor or selfish choice changed all the choices to come. My paths became more limited and defined by each subsequent choice I made until I now find myself here.
There’s some logic to it. Who hasn’t looked at a young child and realised the openness of their lives before them. They could become anything, anything obvious, anything likely but also possibly something radically surprising. They are still wide open to all possibilities. They have before them a multitude of doors which are still wide open. How will they choose and will they prosper?
I used to be surprised by the passing judgements of old ladies. Looking into the faces of younger people they would describe their whole lives to come with a simple sharp phrase.
“Her life is going to be hard”
“That one will always be chasing the wind”
“He’ll never come to anything”
“He will do well in life”
At the time I took it for little more than the idle and perhaps slightly malicious chatter of those whose lives were mostly behind them. Yet they were often right in the end and I often wondered why.
Our characters make our choices.
I have a friend who says she is looking for love but is really chasing excitement. The love of a faithful steady man was too boring for her instead she chases the up and down romances of the disinterested. Will he won’t he? And how could he? These are her most cherished thoughts. Round and round the circle she goes man after man like a puppy chasing its own tail. Occasionally she longs for the dream of marriage and family. Then wistful she ventures that this is her burden in life.
Does God plan for us to spend our lives running ourselves ragged in a circle – chasing our own tail?
Pause for thought and reflect on the friends you have who are living circular lives – how easy to see the choices they constantly make that leads them to the inevitable conclusion. Now pause for thought and turn your gaze upon yourself – what of your own character?
Has your character made your life choices? Are you satisfied with the result? It is at this point that panic grips me for slowly it begins to dawn that I will continue in the same blind and thoughtless, yet thoughtful, vein unless something changes within me. My life isn’t bad – but could it be better? My choices are not outlandish but am I trapped by my predictability?
And what about all this talk of God, if my character is really driving me where is he? Just on my lips but not in my heart? Just in my mind but not in my actions? Just in my musings but not in my choices?
I take a rough look at myself and realise that this is all too true. Sometimes I pray and look to see his will in my choices but many times I just react and decide. There are things I choose to live with or through and things I won’t choose no matter how positive it may seem to another. I am me, which is fine, but perhaps only me which is not what I had planned at all.
It is time for me to step back and judge myself before I too become an obvious cliché for old women to feed on or just another soul who sits content in church but who in reality lives for self and not Christ. It is time for me to become a Christian- driven by his ways, inspired by his words, with a character that is centred on Him alone. Then I will be content that my choices reflect his character and will for my life.
Now that’s a choice I can live with and look back on without regret.
Perhaps I was supposed to live a different life. Perhaps one mistake along the way, one poor or selfish choice changed all the choices to come. My paths became more limited and defined by each subsequent choice I made until I now find myself here.
There’s some logic to it. Who hasn’t looked at a young child and realised the openness of their lives before them. They could become anything, anything obvious, anything likely but also possibly something radically surprising. They are still wide open to all possibilities. They have before them a multitude of doors which are still wide open. How will they choose and will they prosper?
I used to be surprised by the passing judgements of old ladies. Looking into the faces of younger people they would describe their whole lives to come with a simple sharp phrase.
“Her life is going to be hard”
“That one will always be chasing the wind”
“He’ll never come to anything”
“He will do well in life”
At the time I took it for little more than the idle and perhaps slightly malicious chatter of those whose lives were mostly behind them. Yet they were often right in the end and I often wondered why.
Our characters make our choices.
I have a friend who says she is looking for love but is really chasing excitement. The love of a faithful steady man was too boring for her instead she chases the up and down romances of the disinterested. Will he won’t he? And how could he? These are her most cherished thoughts. Round and round the circle she goes man after man like a puppy chasing its own tail. Occasionally she longs for the dream of marriage and family. Then wistful she ventures that this is her burden in life.
Does God plan for us to spend our lives running ourselves ragged in a circle – chasing our own tail?
Pause for thought and reflect on the friends you have who are living circular lives – how easy to see the choices they constantly make that leads them to the inevitable conclusion. Now pause for thought and turn your gaze upon yourself – what of your own character?
Has your character made your life choices? Are you satisfied with the result? It is at this point that panic grips me for slowly it begins to dawn that I will continue in the same blind and thoughtless, yet thoughtful, vein unless something changes within me. My life isn’t bad – but could it be better? My choices are not outlandish but am I trapped by my predictability?
And what about all this talk of God, if my character is really driving me where is he? Just on my lips but not in my heart? Just in my mind but not in my actions? Just in my musings but not in my choices?
I take a rough look at myself and realise that this is all too true. Sometimes I pray and look to see his will in my choices but many times I just react and decide. There are things I choose to live with or through and things I won’t choose no matter how positive it may seem to another. I am me, which is fine, but perhaps only me which is not what I had planned at all.
It is time for me to step back and judge myself before I too become an obvious cliché for old women to feed on or just another soul who sits content in church but who in reality lives for self and not Christ. It is time for me to become a Christian- driven by his ways, inspired by his words, with a character that is centred on Him alone. Then I will be content that my choices reflect his character and will for my life.
Now that’s a choice I can live with and look back on without regret.