“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin. For he considered the reproach because of the Messiah to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since his attention was on the reward.”
Hebrews 11:24-26 HCSB
The verses above provide a capsule summary of the life of Moses recorded extensively in the book of Exodus. This short summary in the book of Hebrews show us the power of choice. Moses made choices and those choices were very instrumental in the outcomes he experienced.
God created man with the ability to make choices. The ability to make choices is one of the wonderful aspects of man that distinguishes us from animals and the rest of creation.
At the extremes of life, this ability to make choices is not fully functional-babies are not yet at a stage of mental development to take decisions and sometimes in old age, mental ability could become impaired leading to a reduced ability to make choices. At every other stage in life however, we are blessed by God with this ability to make choices.
35, 000 choices every day?
Although there is no accurate way to measure this, multiple internet sources estimate that the average amount of choices an adult makes each day is about 35, 000 while children make about 3, 000. The numbers may sound absurd but researchers at Cornell University found that an average American made over 200 decisions each day about food alone!
As you would know, some of the issues about which we make choices are not as important as others. Choices about when to go to bed, when to wake up, taking a bath, what type of skin care product to use or the make of your toothbrush are probably not as important in the overall matrix of our lives as the choices we make on education, residence, career, relationships, marital partners or number of children.
Choice and consequence
In every case, we must realize that our choices are never inconsequential. You are where you are in life today as a result of choices you have made in the past. In fact, you are reading my blog post today because you made a choice to do so. And even when we do not make any choice when faced with different options, that in itself is a choice! Many of our choices go a long way in impacting not only our lives but other people as well.
We have Moses as example of faith recorded for us in Hebrews 11 because he made specific choices. Can you imagine how different the narrative would have been if Moses had not made those choices?
Remembered (or not even remembered) for their wrong choices
Some characters in the Bible are mostly remembered for their wrong choices:
· Cain: killed his brother Abel after his own sacrifice was not accepted by God, even after God had warned him (Genesis 4)
· Esau: sold his birth right for a meal (Genesis 25)
· Lot: continued living in Sodom even though he was tormented daily with the lawless deeds he saw and heard (2nd Peter 2:7,8)
· Judas Iscariot: sold our Lord for silver even though he followed and listened to His teachings and was a witness to His power.
Some other biblical characters have almost completely faded from our memories as a result of some choices they made. Permit me to take you through a short exercise. Do you recognise the following names: Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, Geuel, Orpah? I am sure most of us will however, easily remember Caleb, Joshua and Ruth. The first 10 of those other names were the other spies who along with Caleb and Joshua went to scout the land of Canaan while Orpah was the other daughter-in-law in the story of Ruth. Many people now bear names like Caleb, Joshua and Ruth but I am yet to meet anyone else named Orpah! The difference in these individuals can be traced to the choices they made.
To emphasize again: every choice has its consequence. This is the reality of life as God has designed it.
“…they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind”
Hosea 8:7 HCSB
Galatians 6:7 HCSB
To be continued…
Notes
https://www.quora.com/How-many-decisions-does-a-person-make-in-an-average-day
Notes
https://www.quora.com/How-many-decisions-does-a-person-make-in-an-average-day
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