I read a Facebook post recently that kind of sums how many of us have felt at one time or another. I’ll paraphrase, but the gist of the post was this: “How did I end up here? I hate my life! This is not what I had planned for my life. I don’t know how I got here.” I can sympathize with this poster, and at times could even empathize with them. And while I’m not sure that Facebook is the proper place to seek help for the situation they found themselves in, it got me thinking. How did I get here? Many of us have suddenly taken inventory of our lives and realized that this is not where we thought we would be at this point in our journey. We wake up one day with the realization that things are not what we think they should be. Missed opportunities fuel regret for what might have been. Disappointment sets in and before we know it, we have that melancholy feeling that nothing is good.
The thing is, we become what we are. Think about it this way: I’m not overweight because I ate a big meal last night, or a big breakfast this morning. I’m overweight because I ate a big breakfast this morning and larger-than-necessary meals for the past several decades. The truth is, I’m faced with a decision every time I make the choice to eat something. How healthy is this? How much should I allow myself to eat? And as much as I can tell you how healthy I eat, the fact is, I’m overweight. So in spite of my efforts to make healthy choices in eating, there are times when I override my own sense of health and make poor choices in what, or how much to eat. Not all the time, but enough that it has affected my weight. This has happened one choice and a few ounces at a time. I didn’t suddenly gain an extra 30 pounds yesterday. It has been the accumulation of years of one bad choice at a time.
The same is true for your life. You have become what you are. Some of you may think that one bad decision has landed you in the state of life you find yourself. But it wasn’t. I’ll give a couple of biblical examples. Think about David. He wasn’t born king. In fact, he was born the youngest of 8 sons. He was a shepherd. His choices helped determined what he became. His first choice came when he was faced with a lion attacking his flock of sheep. Should he run for help? Should he hide until the lion had gone? He made the decision to fight the lion. And he killed it. Maybe not the decision I would have made, but I’m not a king. After that decision, when a bear attacked the flock, his victory over the lion made the decision to stand and fight a little easier. He killed the bear also. These two decisions could have affected his life differently. Of course, either the bear or lion could have killed David. But they didn’t. They made him stronger and more confident. Qualities he needed when facing a giant of a man named Goliath. His victory over Goliath opened the door for David to work in the palace. And another of his choices helped keep him there. He chose to play an instrument. He not only played, he practiced and composed his own songs. He could have chosen to read books while watching the sheep. Or dance. Or weave baskets out of the grass. He chose to write and play music. See, God used the natural abilities of a shepherd to create a king. David wasn’t born a king. He became one. David could have been known as the shepherd who killed a lion. He could have been only a local hero, but he became a king.
Another Old Testament example is Daniel. Daniel could have faded into obscurity as just one of the thousands of captives in a defeated Jewish country. As a prisoner, Daniel made the choice to give God a chance to work. He asked the captain of the guards to allow his companions and him to eat only beans instead of the rich diet they were given. Daniel could have gone along with life. After all, he suddenly finds himself in a difficult situation through no fault of his own. He could have allowed this situation to define him, but he didn’t. He became someone different. His choice of diet earned him the respect of the guards and a place in the king’s court. He was schooled in the culture of his new captors, but he never accepted his captors’ culture as his own. He chose to hold to the beliefs of his youth. He made a conscious decision – a choice – to not participate in the culture of his new life as a captive in a foreign country. He leveraged his position in the king’s court to interpret the dreams of the king; an act which not only spared his life, but the lives of all of the wise men in the country. When faced with the decision to break the law and stop praying, Daniel chose to continue praying, even though it meant that his life was on the line. It was a decision that shaped his future; not one on which his future depended, or by which he was defined, but one that shaped the direction his future was to take. It was a fork in the road. His decision caused him to be thrown into a cave with lions. And again, Daniel didn’t allow one choice to define him. He made another choice in the cave and prayed. He could have resigned himself to his fate. But he didn’t. He chose to change his situation through prayer.
The common denominator in both of these stories is that God had a plan for both David and Daniel. While I don’t believe that God forced David or Daniel into the place they each arrived at, I do believe that God influenced the outcomes of some of their decisions. But the decisions were theirs to make. I believe that God gave David the ability to kill both a lion and a bear. However, the choice to stand and fight or to run and hide were Davids’ decisions to make. Daniel was spared the fate of becoming lion chow, but the decision to refuse to stop praying in defiance of the king’s law was his to make. The Bible is filled with stories of men and women who made decisions without knowing the outcome. In fact, When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were facing the prospect of being thrown into a furnace for their beliefs, they said “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” They made a choice that day to stand up for their beliefs without knowing whether God would spare them or not. They chose to defy the king, even if it meant their death. They too could have faded into the journals of history and not be known as anything other than a few Hebrew boys who were killed for standing up to the king. Instead, they became more than unknown slaves in a foreign country because of their decision that day.
The fact is, God has a plan for you too. Your choices will determine who you become. So where are you today? Is this the life you envisioned living? What decisions will you make today that will shape your future? Will you choose to eat healthy? It’s not that one decision is necessarily better than another one, but each choice you make today will shape your tomorrow. Where do you see yourself next year? Make choices today that support that vision of your future. Where will you be in 5 years? In 10 years? At retirement? What kind of father or mother will you be? What kind of grandparent will you be? Where do you want your career to take you? The choices you make today will decide the person you are becoming. More importantly, where do you fit into God’s plan? Will you choose to trust God in difficult situations, or will you resign yourself to your fate? The Bible says that when we become Christians, our minds are to be renewed. That doesn’t mean that we always make wise choices after becoming a Christian, but it does mean that we have the wisdom of God to help us make the choices that will shape who he wants us to be tomorrow. Ultimately, that’s what matters. Are you making choices that will point you toward the destiny that God has planned for you? Be a David. Be a Daniel. Build on your past and even your present to push on toward the life that God wants you to live.