Our choices make us!

Have you ever wondered why it is that some people seem to get through life better than others?

Could it be because of the choices they make?

Life is full with choices, isn’t it? From the moment we get up in the morning until the moment we lay your head on our pillow, we will have made hundreds—maybe even thousands—of choices. 

Some are simple, even insignificant choices, like what to wear or what to eat and yet we might agonize over them.  And then, there are big choices that we might gloss over completely. 

The reality is that there may be more on the line then we think. 

I love Joshua’s parting words to the nation of Israel.

Joshua said to all the people…. “if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.… But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:2,15)

For Joshua it was a simple case of choose your love, and then love your choice.

This week at Amberlea we are starting a new sermon series entitled, Choices.  I hope you will join me as we discover how we can be intentional about the choices we make - because we make our choices, and our choices make us!

Your choice matters!

Cathedrals

I recently returned from a most memorable time away.  Brian and I had the opportunity to visit a place I have longed to go since I was a young girl.  We were in Spain, a land full of history, amazing food and breathtaking views.  But what captured my imagination (and time) were the cathedrals. 

So, what is a cathedral?

As you know, a church is a building used forChristian public worship. A cathedral (in the Roman Catholic tradition) is the central church in a district (or diocese) that is supervised by a bishop. 

In every city we visited, in the centre of town was a cathedral.  These are grand, centuries old, elaborate structure built to the glory of God with towers reaching high into the clouds, fantastic flying buttresses, high vaulted ceilings, and the stunning clerestory (a line of stain glass windows) letting magnificent light flow into the building.

Just approaching the cathedral was like opening up a book with the Old and New Testament stories sculpted into the walls. (Remember that most people couldn’t read and write in the Middle Ages, so art — in the form of painting and sculptures — was the way in which the church would “educate” people.)  It was almost overwhelming to take it all in.

At each cathedral we visited I found myself needing to go in. To stop. To sit. To absorb it all and to pray.  I prayed for each of you. I also found myself asking:

Who were the people who built this cathedral?  

Did they just build it to put food on the table for their families or was it a labour of love?

Did they live to see it completed?

Did they worship in this building? 

Did this building bring them closer to God?  

I thought and prayed and pondered. There was is no doubt that the cathedrals we visited were beautiful, stunning even, but God does not live in the cathedrals. 

We are the cathedrals that house God’s spirit. 

Wherever we go, whatever we do, we bring the spirit of God and the love of Jesus with us.  We are the cathedrals.

Cathedrals have always been places of sanctuary where people could go in times of trouble, whether personal, political, or whatever.  If we are the cathedrals of God’s spirit, and I believe we are, then that means we are to be a safe place for others. We are to be a place where others can come to find rest and feel comforted.

We are the cathedrals. Beautiful, in every shape and size, (and some of us feeling centuries old)  built to the Glory of God, for the Glory of God!

Choices

Years apart,

separated by time and space.

Lives unfolded in expected and unexpected ways,

    the intermingling of sorrow and joy.

And in a chance encounter we come together

    different and yet strangely similar to memory of the past.

Lives reconnecting.  The old has become new.

Because of You, O Holy God, all because of YOU.

********************

On Sunday at Amberlea we had the very talented singer, songwriter, and inspirational speaker, Ali Matthews.  What a pleasure it was to worship with her and, for me personally, to reconnect with her after so many years.

Ali’s husband was a childhood friend of Brian’s and Ali came as his “plus one” to our wedding, 32 years ago in December.  Imagine that!  We had a chance to sit down and catch up before the service and quickly decided that twenty minutes was not enough!

During the service, I was moved as she shared about her experience in Ecuador and her passion for World Vision.  But I was truly convicted by one sentence. Ali simply said, “Everything we do is a choice”.

It’s amazing how six little words strung together can act as an arrow aimed straight for the heart.

Everything we do is a choice.

We make a million choices in a day.  What we will wear, what we will eat, what route we will take to work, what we will say, how we will spend our money… the list goes on and on.

It seems to me that we are the sum total of the choices we make. We are the result of the choices that we've made in the past and it stands to reason that the decisions that we will be making today will determine who we become and what we're able to do tomorrow. 

Everything we do is a choice AND our choices matter.

What will you choose to do today?

• Will you choose kindness?
• Will you choose to be the hands and feet of Jesus?
• Will you choose to love like you have been loved by God?

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

Our choices matter.