Choices

I'm an imperfect spiritual being created perfectly by God for the life that He has planned and intended for me (His design for my personal character development and spiritual growth). In spite of my imperfections He has also given me the freedom to possess a will of my own and the freedom to choose to follow it. In spite of my imperfection I have the freedom to make the choices that in large part determine the course of this life that I've been given ... imperfectly and on my own.

But wisdom would acknowledge the brokenness of my imperfection and the likely result of the choices I might make on my own. Wisdom would recognize that the potential impact of those choices will not only touch my own life, but will likely affect those around me. As a parent, the power of my choices is the strongest to affect most deeply those closest to me - by the example I demonstrate and the spirit modeled by them as well, to say nothing of the shared consequences. I have the freedom to make choices, but I also have the responsibility to live out the result of those choices ... and witness the collateral effects of them as well.

So wisdom would say that in every choice I make, I risk enacting the power of my imperfection if I make those choices without more perfect guidance. Wisdom would point out that though I have the freedom to make them on my own, my choices stand a far better chance of positive results when they're based on principals and wisdom higher than my own. The pride of my flesh would fuss at this and insist on navigating the path of my life. It would insist on exercising its independence and touting it's freedom if I let it, but its arguments to do so fail immediately when measured against the truth - we've never been independent and freedom exercised unwisely is merely an opportunity to fail. 

There are many who rebel against God's leadership and established wisdom. But in truth, none of us has been independent of God's grace to sustain us - even to have breath. The beauty and joy filled peacefulness of His ways and His wisdom have been demonstrated repeatedly. They're good and profitable for any who would follow them. So in honesty, the arguments of those who rally against or choose to ignore them fall on their face.

We have the awesome record of God's given wisdom available to us. We have the living example of Christ to follow. We have a God who hears us and responds to our requests for additional wisdom and leading. We're not without resource to make wise choices or to live lives that demonstrate His wisdom and its positive results. But to seek them out and apply them ... is a choice.

From before we were formed, there existed in the mind of the God that created us, a plan for our lives. It was conceived in perfect wisdom and laid out before us along with the intention to provide the necessary guidance for us to participate in that plan successfully. Since the beginning of man's existence, perfect guidance has been offered to help us live harmoniously with both God and the plan that preceded us. And everything would have been perfect except for one detail - He gave us the freedom to make choices along with the imperfections of our flesh to aggravate them.

Without this condition, we would not likely see the wisdom of our God's perfect ways. We wouldn't suffer the consequences of our own freedom to choose and thereby learn the value of surrendering our choices to His perfect wisdom. We wouldn't recognize His perfection against our imperfection and our need to submit to His leading and omniscience ... or our need for a savior. Without this condition, the men created by the very hand of God would not recognize their place in the order of what exists, or more importantly -His.

To surrender our choices to His wisdom might seem like giving something up - like our "freedom" or our "pride". But we have belonged to Him from the moment He made us and we have no rightful means to brag about the qualities or abilities that He's given us - we didn't give them to ourselves. Seeking perfect wisdom to avoid the possibility of imperfect decisions and results is an act of tapping into a strength and a wisdom that we by ourselves don't possess - an act of submission ... by very wise men.

Lucifer was powerful and beautiful, but did not properly respect God. He exalted himself and exercised his obvious freedom of choice to rebel against the order that God had established. He saw himself as independent of God's omnipotence and his choice to rebel has earned him and those that followed him a future destiny of destruction. Their own insolence was their downfall. It was their choice. In this day, our own opportunity to make choices really aren't that much different.

The order of God has irrevocably been established and the perfect wisdom of God has been offered ... but the choices we make are up to us. Choices ...