Focus

In "The Screwtape Letters" C. S. Lewis creates a scene that reveals a startling truth. The senior devil is training a junior devil to intercept a man who is on the verge of becoming a Christian. The young devil is to deter the man from God, who they call "the Enemy." The junior devil tries his best to distract his subject, but after a few weeks returns unsuccessful. The frustrated young devil cannot explain what went wrong, but notes that the man did two simple things each day. Every morning he would get up and go for a long walk, thoroughly enjoying the air, the scenery, and all in all, the walk itself. Then every evening, at then end of his day, the man would curl up with a good book, thoroughly delighting in that book, the reading, the time itself. To this, the senior devil notes sharply: "This is where you went horribly wrong! You should have put it into his mind that he had to get up in the morning and take that walk for the sake of exercise. It would have become drudgery to him. And you should have gotten him to read the book so that he could quote it to somebody else. It would have become equally uninspiring. You allowed him to enjoy such pure pleasure that the Enemy's voice became more audible within those experiences. That is where you went wrong."

In talking to a friend of mine today the thought of choices was brought up and how it governs our lives. It made me think on my own life. Decisions that we make every day determine our destiny. I have a picture on my office wall that declares. "its the choices we make not the chances we take that determine our destiny". The more you meditate on this the more it makes sense. How we see the people around us! the life we live! the hope in our heart! They are all determined by the choice of how we see each and everything in our lives.

I think it was Corrie Ten Boom and her sister that were in a prison of war camp that became infested with lice. Corrie's sister declared "Where can we be thankful for this? Seeing you so often tell us to be thankful for everything". The truth was that the enemy guards who used to harass them daily would not go near them so they gained much needed rest from their tormentors. Our choice is how we see the cards that we are dealt. To look for the hope in it or the hurt.

The concluding words of the apostle Paul to the Philippian Church speak of a similar thing.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things... And the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:8-9). There is a promise in this scripture if we follow it. Can you see it?

We are the composition of our choices. We decide our destiny. To be told by God to forgive may seem to the hurting person impossible or too painful. But God asks us to make this choice for our future. To choose not to, often means a life of torment and at times depression. While following God and choosing to, leads to freedom and life. That's why Paul implores the Phillipians to think on the good things in life (and they are always there we must just choose to look for them). What ever we meditate on will become us, it will consume us.

I wonder like the start of this article how many of us count the blessings of life as a burden or a joy. Things like exercise, our work, our life in general. Or do we consider them a drudgery. At times I know I do and I dislike it when I realise what God has done for me. To look at my life from the positive, it becomes an exciting dream that I am privileged to live rather than mundane and boring.