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If you have stopped by the church office lately, then you have probably seen the flooring samples. Samples mean a choice has to be made. I am leery of choices, especially choices that are likely to last awhile.
Lynn has already done a beautiful job painting the walls. Fil has added some decorative touches that make the wainscoting look distinctive. Then there is the masterpiece that Ruby painted that now hangs in the office. I hardly walk by it without offering a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the creative power of God’s presence among us.
Now all that is left to be done is to choose the flooring. Everything else is done and done exceptionally well. The flooring is all that is left. So what is the big deal? Just pick a style and get it installed. I mean, all we are going to do is walk on it, right?
Well, not exactly. If the right choice is made, everything should be fine for awhile anyway. If the wrong choice is made, we will have to live with it and hopefully learn to eventually like it. Either way, the long-term impact has to be considered.
When churches remodel, whatever is done usually does not get redone again for quite some time. Therefore, 40 years from now, someone will walk into the office and look at the office. They may appreciate the wall color. They may like the wainscoting. They may gaze for a moment at Ruby’s painting. Then they will say, “Who decided to put this flooring in here?” Of course, no one will know the answer. Someone else will say, “When was it installed?” Another person will say, “Who was the pastor here then?”
If the disdain for the flooring is great, someone will go find some old church directories and start researching. Eventually, the words, “It was him!” will fill the air. In disgust, someone will say, “Well, I hope he was a better pastor than he was a decorator!” At which point, I will stick my head out the door of the pastor’s study and say, “Me too!”
We are always making choices. Every day we make all kinds of choices — many made with little or no thought. Occasionally, we are involved in making a choice that we do not make every day. Sometimes we make choices that we only get to make once in a lifetime. However, most of the choice making is made up of the hardly-noticed, easy-to-overlook, everyday variety.
Take brushing your teeth, for example. It is something that most folks do a couple of times a day. It is a simple task. There is not much soul searching involved. You just do it because it needs to be done.
If, for some reason, you could not brush your teeth one day, what difference would it make? Maybe not much, just so you were able to brush them the next day. What if you did not brush your teeth for a week? A month? A year? I suspect there would be some negative consequences as a result of your choosing not to brush your teeth. The little choices we make every day, perhaps without even thinking much about them, really do have a significant impact on our lives. Those kinds of choices may not be big choices, but they do have a big impact on our lives.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, that is a big decision that makes a big impact on our lives. In many ways, it is a once-in-a-lifetime decision that we only make one time. It is a choice that leads to other choices. Each day we have to make the choice to follow Christ throughout the day. There are days and situations when we are not faithful to Christ’s call on our lives. We confess our sins, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we strive to do better the next day. However, if we live day after day as if Christ has no claim on our lives, and we make no effort to be accountable for how we live our lives, what happens to our relationship with the Lord? If such was our pattern of living, in all likelihood we would find ourselves in a relationship that is distant and deteriorating.
Our big choice is to accept the salvation and forgiveness that God offers to us through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. The little choices with the big impact come to us with each new day, as we choose to live as Christ would have us live.
Joy and peace,
Ed
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