Choices

 I refuse to get a snow blower even though I know I should. Yesterday morning, I woke up to a solid six inches of snow. Come 6 am, while all my neighbors were firing engines and blowing snow halfway to the moon, I was shoveling away, scraping at concrete, and hoping I got the driveway cleared before the girls had to be off to school.

Thirty minutes in my back started reminding me I was stubborn. Thirty minutes more, and my legs and arms joined in, threatening to give out if I kept at it for much longer. I usually don’t mind it, at least in years past, but I have to remind myself that though I feel young at heart, my body didn’t get the memo.

By the time I was done, my neighbors had already finished breakfast and headed off to work, and although I could tell myself that my driveway looked better than theirs, it really didn’t. It was just a cleared driveway in a neighborhood of cleared driveways, and I was cold, desperate for a cup of coffee, and feeling as though my face had gotten peppered with buckshot.

It was the cold more than the shoveling, I think. I’m sure that’s what made me sore all over, and not the shoveling itself. We’ll blame the cold; that way, we can go another year without getting a snowblower because I still enjoy the simplicity of it all: one man, one shovel, and one driveway.

For the first time since creation, we live amidst a generation that has convinced itself that choices do not have consequences. Not only that, but they insist they shouldn’t, and if you point out that every choice does, you’re looked upon as some heartless ghoul who has no empathy for the plight of his fellow man.

I chose not to get a snow blower. Therefore, I have no one to blame for my sore back but myself. As long as I choose the aches and pain over the indignity of purchasing a snow blower, I have to own it, grit my teeth, and bear it. I can’t blame my wife, my kids, or my neighbors for not getting a snow blower because it was my choice not to.

It’s not vanity that’s keeping me from acknowledging that I am getting older. Vanity forsook me with the last of the hairs on my head. I just don’t want to admit that this husk isn’t what it used to be. Eventually, I will. Perhaps next year.

When we choose to disregard the Word of God, when we choose to ignore the directions, edicts, and commandments of God, we likewise have no one to blame but ourselves for the consequences thereof. Oftentimes the consequences don’t become obvious overnight. Sometimes it takes years of continual rebellion, disobedience, and obfuscation for someone to find themselves alone, powerless, rudderless, and cold.

God was always there. He didn’t go anywhere or find something else to occupy His time. Man, however, thought he could hedge his bets and get away with half-hearted devotion and partial obedience. The divide between those who walk humbly with their Lord and those who pretend to be is growing wider with each day. Those who learned to deny themselves and pick up their crosses walk with hope, knowing that the promise of eternal glory is not far behind.

You can tell where someone is spiritually by how they react to the chaos the world has become. If they are fearful and trepidatious about tomorrow, so much so that every day is lived in anxiousness about the next, then eternity isn’t what they’re focused on. Knowing what I know, if I chose to focus on impending judgment all day every day for the last four decades, I’d be half mad, living in a hole in the ground and talking to the shadow as though they were my friends.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

We do not lose heart, although some do. We do not lose heart, although it’s easier to give in to hopelessness and despair than to cling to God’s promises when everything is dark and gloomy. It all depends on what you’re focused on, what you choose to allow into your heart, and what you choose to affect your emotions.

Yes, I’m feeling a bit rickety this morning, but I’m waiting for the sun to come up so I can take my coffee, go to the front window, and look at my clean driveway. I choose to focus on a job well done rather than the momentary pain I may have endured to do it.

Whatever affliction you might be enduring, whether light or otherwise, know that it is both momentary and working for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It’s easy to focus on the momentary discomfort. It’s easy to focus on the momentary pain. It’s easy to beat yourself up over things you can’t control and things that can’t be helped.

I can’t control how the world views me. I can’t control what people say about me behind my back because of what I believe. My only concern is that my walk is pleasing to my Master, knowing that whatever hardship I may endure is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed.

You choose joy or sadness, peace or chaos, doubt or faith. Just know that for every choice, there is a consequence. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.