Options

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

“Options”

            Every day we live we have options.  When we wake in the morning, we have the option to get up or to hit the snooze button ad nauseum times!  Do we immediately make the bed or do we leave it unmade just in case we want to crawl back in?  As you can see, options are a part of our everyday life, even from our waking moments.

            Recently we have had torrential rains occurring across the middle part of the United States.  Creeks and rivers swelled and overflowed their banks.  New records were being set for the depth and flow rates of many rivers.  In our own neighborhoods ditches were filled and water flowed across the streets we normally traveled.  We had an option to try driving through the flowing water, maybe not knowing just how deep it was or the option of taking a different route.  In some cases, the option of driving through the water turned into tragedy.  Even on my daily travels, detours were encountered because downed trees and power lines made it unsafe to travel down that particular road.  In other words, the option to go another way was made for me and many others traveling down that road.

            We are born with innate options already programmed into us.  Babies can remain quiet or maybe cry when they are hungry, need changing, or they just want some attention.  We are programmed to seek, essentially to encounter options and make decisions, and we begin early in life.  I’ve often wondered, what options did the disciples have when Jesus called each of them.  In many cases, it was only two words, “Follow me.”  What went through their minds?  In every case, they gave up livelihoods to follow Jesus.  I wonder if they evaluated the other options that lay before them, one of them being to not follow Jesus but to continue fishing or continue to collect taxes.  What was it about Jesus that made them forego all other options and follow this man they knew little to nothing about?

            When God created mankind, He gave us the ability to choose different options; it’s called free will.  In one of my recent prayers, I asked God why in the world would He give us this ability to choose His ways or our own selfish ways.  I told Him this free will thing sure has mankind messing up the world, and it started, just like options, from the beginning of mankind being on the earth.

            God gave mankind the option to love Him or to not love Him.  For Him to create us with no option in this matter, our love for Him would be required and unemotional, almost robotic.  Recently I watched a film where a young lady asked the speaker, “If your god is a loving god, then shouldn’t He let everyone into heaven?  Why are some people going to hell?  That doesn’t sound like a loving god to me.”  This person didn’t grasp the obvious, that God loves us, and He gives us the option to love Him back or not.

            Face it, not everyone is going to Heaven.  It’s been said, hell will not be full of people who God rejected but will be full of those who rejected God!

            Options.  This kind of makes the correct option very clear, doesn’t it?