Choices

I recently heard it said that "making a good choice is 30 % luck, 50 % decision, and 20 % perception of others". Ain't that the truth. Think about it, how often to do you make a choice thinking... yep that's what God wanted... only to absent mindedly stumble into what God actually wanted you to do? How many times have you changed your mind at the last moment because of what someone else might say? How many times have you re-wrote the same pros and cons list in your mind only to decide it really didn't matter what side you choose they both had equal pros and cons.

The things I find more important than the choices I make is how I react to what happens after I make them. That's also what I use when I'm looking at others to see what kind of people they are. You could always do the "godly thing" or the "right thing" or the "proper thing" but I could care less about that. I care more about what you do when the Godly thing backfires for your cousin, or the right thing crumbles under you little sisters feet or the proper thing flips off your best friend. There in that moment I define you.

I define you but I don't judge you. I would never sit down and tell you that you were good, bad or indifferent because of what I think about how you handled something. I don't do it because I don't believe in putting you in a box. I don't assume I have all the answers.

I assume that maybe today you had to make the stupid choice of your life so that 4 generations from now your great grandchild could save an entire culture because of something she learned from some man you never met. But you see, she wouldn't be here if it weren't for that stumble. I assume that maybe tomorrow the dumbest thing you've ever done might save a life, strengthen a marriage or start a revolution.

It's a lofty assumption and it might not be right. But, I think it's better than assuming you're flushing your life away because you accidently stepped off the path and made a foot print in the grass. You see, I have to believe that. I have to believe in you. Because mistakes, whether you know it or not, are the thing that keep our eyes on God.

Our mistakes draw us to him in times of desperation, salvation and forgiveness. Mistakes teach us to love, they show our kids that forgiveness can save a nation and they show the people who don't know him yet that they are just as broken and lovable as we are.

And if we aren't choicing to show people that... what are we really saying about God?