Shevat 21
What Choice?
“Blessed is the man
who shall NOT walk …” (Ps 1:1 ISR, emphasis
mine)
The act of walking implies
a sense of direction and destination, a purpose and a goal. At the time this Psalm was written, walking
was the principal means of
transportation; it would therefore stand to reason that few unnecessary steps
were taken. In our opening verse, this
man shows, by the words used, that he made a choice: he was not
going in a certain direction.
I believe it would be safe
to assume we have all taken off along a “rabbit trail”, some mental, some
literal, with many of them ending up as nothing but a dead end. While many of these “rabbit trails” do end up
bearing good fruit, how often do we really
stop and look at where we are going, before we venture down that particular
road? Do we really examine the consequents of taking off in an impulsive direction? Believe me, please, I am as guilty as
everyone else.
Each one of us is the
result of all the brilliant (and not so brilliant) choices we have made
throughout our lives, i.e. because we choose to go in a certain direction,
engage in a certain activity, or believe a certain way, we harvested the result
of that choice – some good, some bad.
This is a Scriptural principle: “…for whatever a man sows, that he shall
also reap” (Gal 6:7). Perhaps it is past time for us to take that
second look at some of the “rabbit trails” we are following, and ask ourselves if
this is really where we want to be. Let us be diligent to “count the cost” (see
Luke 14:28); is the perceived destination of any benefit, and is it worth the
effort to go there …
“I
have called the heavens and the earth as witnesses today against you: I have
set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore you shall choose life, so that you live, both you
and your seed, to love יהוה your
Elohim, to obey His voice, and to cling to Him – for He is your life
and the length of your days …” (Deu 30:19-20
ISR, emphasis mine)
“I have chosen the way of truth; Your right-rulings
I have held level.” (Ps 119:30 ISR)
©2018
No comments:
Post a Comment