We face a multitude of choices every day – at times in can be intimidating.  For example, if you’re shopping for a product and you don’t know where it’s located it can seem overwhelming.  My daughter asked me to pick up some diapers, so I asked a lady in the store where are the diapers?  She asked me, “Who are they for?”   I responded, “Why do you ask?”  She said, “It all depends.”  I realized it’s dangerous for someone my age to ask for diapers, I quickly answered that I needed swim diapers for my granddaughter.

Perhaps you’ve faced the challenge of too many choices.  A Fast Company article from June 4th 2014 indicated that Amazon sells 1,161 kinds of toilet brushes.  You can spend hours reading countless contradictory reviews and pondering far too many choices.  Barry Schwartz  in The Paradox of Choice:  Why More Is Less tells us that too many choices exhaust us, make us unhappy and lead us to sometimes abscond from making a decision all together.  “As the number of options increases, the costs, in time and effort, of gathering the information needed to make a good choice also increase,” writes Schwartz. “The level of certainty people have about their choice decreases. And the anticipation that they will regret their choice increases.”

We face a similar situation in life – there seem to be so many conflicting voices.  As the fledgling nation of Israel was preparing to enter the promised land, Joshua gave them this challenge,

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.  (Joshua 24:15)

Joshua was actually simplifying their lives.  Rather than trying decide between the various gods of the nations surrounding them, he was saying there is one true way to serve God.  We are faced with a number of conflicting choices today – and the majority is not always correct.  There are a number of false gods vying for our attention every day.  The words of Jesus help us to make the right choice,

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  (Matthew 6:33)

There is a classic line in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when the Grail Knight says, “You must choose. But choose wisely, for as the true Grail will bring you life, a false one will take it from you. ”   Donovan, who is the antagonist, drinks from the false Grail and is obliterated.  The Grail Knight in a classic understatement says, “He chose…poorly.”  Make sure you choose wisely!

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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