“To Be Considered…Two Choices”

Well, here we are on the threshold of a brand new year! It’s almost time to leave the old behind and start a new season of life. If you’re like most people, this past year has been quite a mixture of pain and sorrow, with a little boredom thrown in here and there. Triumphs and defeats litter our path through 2017 and all in all we may be glad to see it end and look forward to a new start in 2018, or, we may be sad because it has been a good year. Either way, 2018 will come, Lord willing, and we will face another year of choices. And, another year to let the Lord lead us…or not. It’s up to us.

Robert Frost, in a famous poem said, he faced two choices at a certain crossroads. He was lucky. Half the time I see so many choices I get quite overwhelmed. But, when I really think about it, there are only two choices in a given situation…God’s way and my way. Proverbs 3:5-6 says we need to “trust in the LORD with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths.” Sometimes that means we do need to consider a new direction, but often it means we need to get back on the old path. The ‘tried and true’ road where the footing is firm.

So, as we peer ahead to 2018 I offer Jeremiah 6:16 for us to ponder before we start to fill our year with new decisions: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…”

Do you need to get back to the “old way’? Do you need to return to the path that you used to walk in better days, when you had sweet fellowship with your Lord, and you were assured of His love and care for you? It’s something to be considered.