As we celebrate each day, week, month or year, it provides us with an opportunity for sober reflection as to how we approach and live our lives. We can choose to approach and live our lives with self-pity, with blame, with anger and bitterness, and with an unwillingness to change, or we can approach and live our lives with joy and thanksgiving. It is a matter of choice. It is a decision we must think about and make.
The power to choose is indeed an awesome privilege. God has given us the choice to choose our paths, our attitudes and actions. However, the outcome is often tied to our choices. Every choice we make has an end-result – good, bad, or indifferent, so the choices we make are the hinges of our destiny. We make our decisions, and then our decisions make us.
So, how we approach living, life comes down to the choices we make. We can begin with a positive outlook or a pitiful outlook – it is our choice. We can begin with rehashing and reliving the miseries and the missed opportunities, or we can begin with a wonderful anticipation of something better. We can begin as a pessimist, seeing the difficulty in every opportunity, or we can begin as an optimist, seeing an opportunity in every difficulty. Developing a positive outlook on life, and learning to be thankful for who we are and what we have, can improve our mental health and our general well-being.
We have suffered much in the past – physically, emotionally, financially and even spiritually – but we must never give up. We must never let our pain paralyze us. We must shake it off because it serves no useful purpose.
Grief is good and proper and is healing and even ennobling, but after grief has done its work of healing and helping we must move on. The past is gone. It’s over and we can’t go back. Not even if we want to try. We cannot live in yesterday. And we cannot even live in today. We must move onward towards tomorrow.
To get where God wants us to be, we must face our challenges with the promise of God’s presence and by doing as He directs. So let us draw our strength from Job’s life and Job’s choices. Out of all that he had endured, and out of all that befell him, he chose to praise God. Even in the backdrop of a canvas painted with chaos, crisis, and confusion, he literally gave praise to God. His theology was, “Lord, I have lost much that was dear to me, I have experienced the depths of grief and pain, but I am going to praise you for life, favor, and your spirit.” We too must say the same despite our suffering.
Sometimes pain can be the platform of blessings. When we bring our pain to God, He can reverse the order. Jabez knew that best. He had the antidote or a remedy for his pain. He believed that God was a God who, if you prayed about your pain, He would do something. To us, joy means the absence of all pain, but that is not so. Joy is deep satisfaction that comes from knowing that God is in control even when our circumstances seem to be out of control. The key to joy is knowing that God is in control. If we know that we can be satisfied at a very deep level even while we weep over what is happening around us and to us.
Let us give God thanks in all things, for we know that the testing of our faith develops perseverance. God wants to put our faith to the test. Until our faith is put to the test, it remains theoretical. We will never know what we believe until hard times come. Then we find out, for better or for worse. When life comes apart at the seams, then we discover what we truly believe. Until then, our faith is speculative because it is untested.
So, as we sojourn on life’s journey, our only hope lies in the promises of God for the future. Let us step out into the future fully assured that somehow, someway, God will keep his promises. Let us trust in His provision and timing for He knows what the future holds and what is best for us. Out of the humdrum of our lives, He is weaving an unseen pattern that will one day lead us in a new direction. By faith, let us take the next step and walk with Him wherever He may lead us. Let us be mindful, though, sometimes it will make sense to us, and other times it might not.
So, as we forge ahead, let the Word of Christ dwell in us. Let the calmness of Christ rule our thoughts and actions. Let the love of God motivate us to change our approach to life and its circumstances so that we can do things with a different attitude and, most importantly, let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts and enable us to live as one people and be thankful.
Remember: We are our Choices. We are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of our own destiny. It is our choices and decisions that will determine our destiny.
About the Author: Mrs. Marilyn Hodge owns and operates the Wellness Centre in the Farrington, Anguilla. The Centre offers Counselling Services by Appointment Only and has now published Positive Living Volume 2. Contact information: 476-3517 or email: marilynb@anguillanet.com. www.facebook.com/axawellnesscentre
