The hardest question for any parent to have to answer is 'Why?'. It can sometimes be frustrating and difficult to explain to a young mind, but even for a person of some years it can be just as hard. If it isn't 'Mommy, why is the sky blue?' it's 'What am I going to do now that he's gone?'. Or 'How do I get my child off of drugs?'. Or 'How do I pay for groceries when we have no money?'. Or even something less threatening but just as important, 'Why do I feel incomplete?'.
The limitless possibilities of those types of questions is boundless. They are the questions in life that follow us through out our journey and stand before us as sentinels of time barring our progress until they are answered in some form. They are universal. Not one of us can avoid these questions because we have good looks, money, a great personality, or do good deeds - no, they do not discriminate amongst us. Many of us will face many hard questions and crossroads in life and will face them with contempt and despise their presence and use. Many more of us will try to avoid them by going around them but inevitably walk in circles, lost and wandering. And yet still more of us, will simply stand there, admiring the choice, discussing it, theorizing about outcomes, planning a strategy that never gets implemented because we never simply make a choice or answer the question for ourselves.
The truth of the matter is that these crossroads, the difficult valleys and mountain slopes that we must endure in life can never benefit us until we choose how to traverse them and then walk out that journey. It is the person who stays stuck who never finds truth or happiness because they think they are successful having never lived for an outcome that is robbed of all real happiness and fulfillment. They are the ones left at the starting gates of life while the rest of the world marches toward the greater goal.
Controlled by the fear of making a wrong decision or fear of failure, they do not realize that choosing stagnation is the death knell for their joy. And though they continue on striving for success, happiness, peace, love, joy, they go no where because they refuse to face hard facts, change bad habits that steal their peace, and confront painful memories to be able to embrace a fearless future that holds all that we desire!!
Instead, they find their fear comforting. They will try to compensate and put their focus on something else, but inevitably they end up right back where they started. Scared. Too fearful to make a decision.
Today, I am comforted to know that I am no longer afraid to choose. When God's Word becomes REAL to you, it comforts you. Nothing else works but God's Word, because it will become the only truth in your life. And that is how it should be. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Or Psalms 40:5, "Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." [NIV]
God has a plan for us. We should embrace it without fear of failure. Whatever hurdles we face in life are never alone or without help. He never leaves us or forgets about us, even when we mess up big time! And sometimes our mistakes help us to realize the magnitude of His love and mercy on us. DON'T let fear keep you from choosing. DON'T be handicapped by perfectionism and let failure intimidate you into stagnation. Give God the glory today and choose you this day whom you will serve. And everything else will be worked out to His glory and to your good. Hold on to faith, pray His word upon your hearts and lives, and serve God with all your heart and mind.
All the answers.... are Him. It is remarkably easy to know right from wrong when you learn to put Him first, that once clouded pathway gets so clear. Removed of fear and failure, you see the road for what it is - temporary. Don't get stuck, get Jesus. He is the paver of our road of life.
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