Moments of Decision

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Have you ever noticed how we make our decisions, and then our decisions have a way of making us? The choices that we make, even those made on the spur of the moment, can leave long-term marks on our lives.

A young couple buys a cottage where they spend every summer weekend, only to find, twenty years down the road, that they have raised children who regard Christianity and church as a part-time occupation at best. A high school student takes his first drink at a post-prom party, only to find his adult life a dark spiral downward into an alcoholic abyss.

Every one of us, whether we know it or not, faces a number of crucial moments of decision during our lifetime. They are like crossroads, where we must choose one of two different pathways which lead, ultimately, to different destinations. They are turning points, although we almost always fail to recognize them as such at the time. Moments of decision have a way of radically affecting the direction of our lives, but it is only in retrospect that we realize that fact.

That is because those crucial moments usually come unannounced. They occur during the course of daily life, without prior warning. They creep up on us in the context of routine, amid the myriad little, humdrum choices we make each day. God never sends a telegram saying “You are about to face an important and life-changing decision next Thursday at 3:30. Please be ready.” We cannot gather ourselves, collect our wits, and spend extended time in prayer and reflection as we anticipate those moments. They are here, they are gone; and the die has been cast.

The Bible records such moments in the lives of many of its leading characters. Like us, those men and women made their choices and then their choices made them. Remember Ruth, declaring clear-eyed and forthrightly to her mother-in-law “I will go where you go…” Recall Joseph, his heart-pounding, his senses filled with the allure of a beautiful woman, stammering “How could I do such a thing and sin against God?” Think of Esther, swallowing the lump of terror in her throat and declaring “If I perish, I perish.” Those moments of decision profoundly altered the course of their lives.

The year 1993 will hold such moments of decision for each of us. The question is: What will be the measure by which we will weigh those decisions? That is the only issue we can decide in advance. Will we make our choices on the basis of enlightened self-interest; doing whatever seems to be best for us at the time? Or will we hew to a higher standard, making our choices on the basis of what will redound to the glory of God? My prayer for you, as for myself, is that the “glory of God” principle would be the compass by which we steer our lives through the coming year.