Our Choices

               A little food for weekend thought:
     From C.S. Lewis:  "I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.  And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices,  all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with it's fellow creatures, and with itself."
     Last night four dear girlfriends and I went to see a stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis's magnificent book, The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is a senior devil who carries on a, well, we'll just call it a lively but hellish, correspondence with Wormwood, a junior tempter.  Screwtape is mentoring the junior tempter in his attempts to woo his "patient" to the kingdom of hell and away from God's kingdom.  A tempter is assigned to every human on earth.  And so Lewis gives us the remarkable and telling perspective of the hosts of evil in their efforts to destroy the human race and populate hell.
     Anyway, the play was incredible.  Just amazing.  And I'll probably write more on this tomorrow, but for now, just wanted to include the quote above, as this was the one shared by the actor who played Screwtape in a Q & A session after the show.  And, as with everything C.S.Lewis wrote, these words just seemed to capture and express truth so clearly.
     Our choices matter.  And so often we tend to forget that as we just rush through our day, making one seemingly inconsequential choice after another.  But they all add up.  Like that sand that is either slowly eroding a beach till the houses fall into the sea or the sand at another beach that is slowly being added until hundreds of feet of new beachfront emerge from the waters.  It happens so gradually, often so quietly, that we tend not to notice until, boom, there it is.
     The drug addict homeless on the street did not begin there.  It started way back,  with one small choice to try something forbidden... something small and seemingly so unimportant.  And then choice upon choice, layer upon layer... and in the end that choice enslaves.  Doesn't every addiction begin that way--one small, often random, thoughtless choice?
     Our choices can ultimately result in our enslavement.  But also in our sanctification. One choice to turn off the TV and go to bed a few minutes earlier... so we can get up to read a few verses and pray... and then we find ourselves thinking about that verse throughout the day... and we are able to respond in love and grace to someone who doesn't deserve it, all as a result of what we read... and that person is then drawn to the Light of Christ... and the next day, that choice encourages us to do it again... and the ripples continue to spread... and it all began with one seemingly inconsequential choice.
     Lord, help us to remember this day: our choices matter.  Our words matter.  Our prayers matter.  Draw us to Yourself and might Your Holy Spirit enable us this day, throughout the day, to choose wisely.  To God be the glory.