What I Learned from a Stapler

It's spring break and I have to work, so my son is with me here in my office. He was watching "Shrek, the Musical" (don't ask) on Netflix, but came and started playing with the stapler. Probably not my best parenting decision ever, but I like the little guy to explore his surroundings and figure out how things work. 

The next thing I know, he has lodged a staple deep into his finger and is panicking. He is partly calm looking at the finger, but tears are coming down his cheeks. When I go to remove it, he freaks, and wiggles, and won't let me touch it. 

What Will You Choose Today?

 

Have you ever noticed that gravity doesn't get to decide whether it wants to operate or not?

The water cycle, weather, seasons, even the earth in it's orbit- none of these things get to choose their actions. They operate along fixed laws that are set and don't fail. A lot of our universe operates in this way. Things behave a certain way and they generally stick to that pattern. Some things may operate in ways that seem "chaotic" such as volcanoes erupting or space rocks flying through the sky, but the point remains that they are just moving, they have absolutely no say in whether or not they erupt, or fly through the sky. Animals have choices in some ways. They can choose in a sense I suppose as far as what they want to eat, where they want to walk. But even they, follow in certain patterns, and they don't really show a lot of concern about where they are going or what they are doing, or whether or not they have gone the wrong way or done something wrong.

I've never seen a deer weeping. This is a cute image though.

 

However, we humans are of a peculiar sort. In a universe that operates on fixed laws, we are completely free. 

Now, some people might say that we are "determined" since we are simply "chemicals and a body and nothing more". But anyone who has lived life knows we aren't determined. We have a free choice in what we do every single day.

When we wake up each day, we have thousands of choices before us.

Will we choose to eat breakfast, or not? Will we wake up early to exercise, or sleep in? Will we be grumpy and rush our children, or be kind and understanding?

At work, will we be effective employees, or slackers?

Will we go to the gym after work, or will we go take a nap? Will we smile at our co-workers or keep to ourselves? Wave, or not wave?

Choices.

They are everywhere and they affect us all the way down to the deepest levels in personal questions such as..

Will we choose to daily acknowledge our creator, or live our lives as though he doesn't exist? Setting ourselves up as judge and jury of life.

Will we choose to pursue only the things that will make us happy or will we adhere to a set of guidelines, a moral code of some sort?

$1,000 dollars might make me happy right now, so should I go and steal it from the bank?

No, that would be illegal and that action would have consequences.

Just like robbing a bank has consequences, all of our choices have consequences.

That choice to eat fast food for lunch is one step closer to poor health. The choice to dwell on negative thoughts leads to depression which leads to health issues.

The more I think about our lives and what makes us human I realize that each day is a choosing game.

We have been endowed as humans as truly free creatures, and it is up to us as to how we will use our freedom.

I've often wondered why it seems like God isn't more visible or why he doesn't make his reality more present in the world in an obvious way. Think 10,000 foot Jesus dancing on the lawn of the White House singing a praise song. Or you pray and then POOF!"Hello, I'm Jesus. What can I do for you today?"

I think it is because God has set everything up as a choice. He's given us the free choice of whether we want to come to him and live or refuse to come to him and ultimately pay many costly prices throughout our lives and thereafter.

Living life without God means no hope, no meaning, no moral law, no happiness, no justice, so many things get mucked up, confusing and painful. We have no hope of healing for our hurts and needs.

Surely this isn't the choice we were made to make. The Bible says that people who reject God, do so of their own choice, even though God has made himself plain to them. (Romans 1:18)

When you look at our world, you see that you do indeed get a choice. To believe God is behind it, or to contrive an alternate "story" of how things got to be just so.

The choice is yours of whether you would come to him and live, or make a different choice.

But that is just it. The choice is yours. God will not appear in bodily form in the sky with a disco ball to appease us and help us make our choice to follow him. That would be forced devotion. We would follow and worship out of fear, not out of love. When we come to God as revealed in his Word and choose to believe him as opposed to man made, relative, just-so stories, our eyes are opened, and our minds renewed. The life he gives is the good and beautiful life and one worth choosing every day.

“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[b] is the key to your life."

 

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Just thinking..