LIFE’S GREATEST CHOICES
(A Baccalaureate Message)
"In all your ways acknowledge (know) Him and He will make straight your paths."
- Proverbs 3:6
The Bible and literature join hands in viewing life as a journey or a road. A popular folk song says, "How many roads must a man walk down, before he knows he’s a man?" A popular gospel song says, "Life is like a mountain railroad / With an Engineer that’s brave / We must make the run successful / From the cradle to the grave." Where life goes is sometimes beyond our control as car crashes, cancer and a thousand other things come on us through no fault of our own. But even then we choose how we react and our choices determine whether we become better or bitter people. The poet says, “One ship drives east and another drives west / With the same winds that blow / Tis the set of the sail, not the strength of the gale / That determines the way it goes.”
The big question at graduation for High School students is college or career? And it may be that college is not an option because of choices you have already made in High School that kept you from making the graves you could and should have made. If so, you have already learned the valuable lesson that choices have consequences. You cannot unscramble an egg or get the toothpaste back in the tube. The Bible says, “Whatever a person sows, that shall he also reap.” We cannot unwind the clock, but we can all begin right now to make good choices
A. THE CHOICE OF COMPANIONS
“Do not be fooled; bad companions ruin good character” (1 Cor. 15 TEV) /
“A companion of fools will be destroyed.” (Prov. 19:30)
Few things in life are more important and powerful than our friends. It the horrible rash of school shootings, once common factor emerges; the killers were loners who felt they did not fit in with the crowd; and not fitting in literally drives them insane. . We need to fit in somewhere. We have to fit in somewhere. Parents make a grave mistake telling their children not to go along with the crowd. Few have the power to overcome peer pressure. What we must do, and even control, is who our children associate with.
Proverbs 13:20 says, “A companion of fools will be destroyed.” They can catch you in their troubles. In the summer after my Junior year in college my best friend and I met some other guys our age and started hanging out with them. My friend and I liked to drink beer, and have a “good time”, as we called it. One night, he and I and one of these guys went to Roberta Georgia to a dance. On the way home the guy with us wanted to stop and get a few beers. He went in and came running out, yelling, “Go! Go! Go!” He said he had gotten in a fight. The next day my friend and I were working on his dad’s farm when a Sheriff’s car from Roberta drove up. The guy with us had cut a man so bad he required over 200 stitches. The Sheriff was there to arrest us for something like attempted murder or aggravated assault. By the grace of God we knew our county Sheriff personally and he vouched for us. The facts came out, the Roberta prosecutor believed us, and we did not have to stand trial. There is a new program called “Scared Straight”, where young people are taken into prisons and hard core prisoners tell them about the horrors of prison life. One young boy on TV came out and said, “Man, I am not even going to spit on the sidewalk any more.” Well, my friend and I were scared straight. We hung out with each other and friends we knew from then on. Who you select as friends goes a long way in determining where you go in life.
The wrong friends can corrupt you. Paul said, “Bad companions ruin good character.” (1 Cor. 15) When God brought his people out of Egypt into Canaan, He told them of the horrible practices of the Canaanites and ordered them to drive them out saying, “What they do makes the land unclean, and you must not do them.” (Lev. 18:26-27). Israel disobeyed and became just like their neighbors, and that is why God let the Northern ten tribes disappear from the face of the earth. The only reason He let Judah live was so they could one day give Jesus to the world. It is friends who teach you to drive 100 MPH; to smoke and ruin your health; to take that first beer or joint or drug. Few of us have the power to go against the crowd, so it is imperative that you choose the right crowd. Billy Graham told of an old drunk who gave up alcohol. Every day, on the way to work, he would hitch his horse by a saloon, walk to the door, take a big sniff, and say, “I don’t need this any more.” Billy said if he kept doing that, the day would come when, in a weak moment, he would walk back into his old world. We cannot pray, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matt. 6), if we walk into it ourselves.
B.THE CHOICE OF A CAREER
Like it or not, most of us, to have any money, have to work for it. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. If you want to make marks on the sands of time, wear work boots. If you want a helping hand, look at the end of your sleeve. God comes on the scene wearing work clothes, and hammering out a universe in six “God-days”. And then He took Saturday off. Jesus of Nazareth supported His family for close to twenty years as a master carpenter (Mt. 13:55). One of God’s ten fundamental laws for honorable human society said, "Six days shalt thou labor." (Ex. 20). The question is - what will you do?
The choice you make here is vital for future happiness. You will spend over half of your waking hours on the job and if you are not happy there you will not be happy PERIOD. One young man I knew had tremendous intelligence and a burning desire to learn and teach. Yet because he married in his teens and quit college to get a job, he found himself in his early twenties saddled with a job he despised in order to support his wife and two children. Every day was drudgery. He hated the sunrise. He hated each new day. He was like an eagle in a cage. He was a miserable, frustrated, bewildered human being. Why; because he made the wrong choice concerning a career. Thank God that when I advised him to go back to college while he was young, he went. And thank God he chose a godly wife who went to work and allowed him to go. How can you help avoid ending up in an unhappy work place?
Look to God. Prov. 3:6 says, "In all your ways acknowledge (know) Him and He will make straight your paths." The word for acknowledge here is "know." It means to become intimately acquainted with by reflection and by experience. The Bible even uses it for the physical relations between husband and wife as when it says, "Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore Cain." (Gen. 4:1). In other words the Bible tells us to know God as the traveling companion and Ruler of our lives whether it be the main road from the cradle to eternity or the side roads we travel along the way. A young man in the Army was asked by his buddies to go with them to a bar. He declined and told them his dad had been an alcoholic and had made him promise never to drink alcohol. They said, “You don’t have to drink, just go with us.” The boy said, no, my dad would not want me to. How do you know that” they asked. He said, “Because I know my dad.” Right now, while you are young, and face decisions that are too big for your wisdom to handle, learn the romance of real religion. Christianity is far more than creeds or church going. It is walking with God and talking with God and making decisions with God.
Knowing the will of God is difficult. It would be nice if He wrote things across the sky, but even that is not foolproof. A farm boy who hated farm work prayed for guidance. He looked up and saw a cloud formation, "GPC", and took it to mean, "Go Preach Christ." After one miserable failure after another, he shared his vision with a deacon who suffered through his sermons. The old deacon said, "Young man, what you saw meant GO PLANT CORN." I don’t want to limit God, but here are a few suggestions.
Look To Your Abilities. God made you special and different and that means you can do some things well, and you can’t do some other things well. If I had to be an executive going to meetings or a counselor listening to other people’s problems all day, I would need a straight jacket. One of the greatest preachers Baptists ever had, Vance Havner; said he was a failure at being a Pastor. He said while he was counseling people he was thinking, “If these people would just get right with Jesus, they wouldn’t have all these problems, and they would leave me alone, so I could study the Bible.” Does this mean Havner was a bad person? No, it just meant God was telling him to pray for the patience to counsel; get someone more competent to do the counseling; or to do something other than pastor. He chose the third option and became a great evangelist. In my first Pastorate a friend and I went to a seminar and the test they gave us revealed he hated to study and could spend all day in the town café talking to people. It revealed I hated small talk and could study all day. We were exact oppocites.
Look To Your Likes and Dislikes (Ps. 37:4). The Bible says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the DESIRES of your heart." Somewhere along the line we got the dumb idea that God wants to make us miserable. Just last week someone asked me, "Isn’t there a scripture that says Jesus never smiled." My friends, nothing could be further from the truth. That which you love to do is often an indication of what God has fitted you to do. Do you love the out-of-doors? Then look along those lines. Do you love study? Do you love to create with your hands? My brother-in-law took a pottery class in college and loved it so much that he made it his life’s profession. He will work in his "pot shop" sometimes from seven in the morning until twelve at night, because he is doing what he likes.
Don’t Look at the Dollar Eccl. 4:4 and 5:10 says, "I have learned why people work so hard to succeed. It is because they envy the things their neighbors have / .if you love money you will never be satisfied" (Eccl. 4:4; 5:10). The biggest mistake young people like you make is to go for the “bucks”. Because of this they take a job they can’t handle. In America there is what we know as the “Peter Principle”. It means people go up and up in a company until they get a task they cannot handle, and they get stuck there. They rise to the level of their incompetence. The company will not promote them and they are too proud to go down to a lower level. And they are miserable and make everybody around them miserable. Frustrated over failure they get ulcers or back pain, and dribble out their anger a home. And it is all for the money- luxury vacations; new cars every two years; new cars for the kids; newer and bigger houses, etc. And the money and things do not make them happy. In the end, 35 percent wind up divorced, and most give their hard earned money to the Hospital. Vance Havner says they spend their health to get wealth and then spend their wealth to get their health back. They try to "keep up with the Jones"; and sadly, the Jones are trying to keep up with them. The “American Dream” is a nightmare for many.
C. THE CHOICE OF A COMPANION.
Proverbs 31 says, “Who can find a good wife? She is more precious than jewels and more valuable than rubies or pearls.” Ladies, the same thing is true of husbands. If you want heaven on earth, marry the right person. If you want hell on earth, marry the wrong one. I wish I had some magic formula to help you. A pastor friend of mine told me about his two daughters. One married a young man, active in the church, from a good church family. He said he and his wife were happy and could not have picked a better young man. His other daughter married a young man who came to church some, but came from a non-church background. He had a lot of rough edges and they weren’t pleased at all with her choice. Well, the years rolled by, and you can guess the result. The first couple, after many unhappy years, broke apart. The second couple grew closer to each other; to the Lord; and to the church. I’ll never forget the look in my friend’s eyes as he said, "Bob. You just never know."
What then can you do? First and foremost, pray. Seek God’s choice and say, "Thy will be done" even if it means breaking up with someone you love. Second, marry a Christian. The Bible tells us not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14). The criteria is not how much time they spend in church, but how they live when they leave church. Third, set some standards. There ought to be some moral and spiritual qualities that you hold primary. Don’t look for perfection but don’t settle for glaring imperfections in vital areas like honesty, courtesy and industry. Why? Because fourth, don’t think you can change what you don’t like after you are married. You can’t. What you see is what you get. Finally, don’t bail out when the going gets rough. Every marriage has its stormy moments but you must commit yourselves to making it. Divorce must not be an option. All it does is lead you from the frying pan to the fire. Divorce should be the absolute, final, last resort after all other solutions have failed. And if divorce comes, as it sometimes does to good Christian people, go forward in God’s plan for the rest of your life.
D. THE CHOICE OF CHRIST
The Bible says, “It is appointed to man, first to die, and after that comes the Judgment” (Heb. 9:22). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) told of those who said, “Lord, Lord”; and even worked for Him, but were sent to hell because their lives were wicked (MT. 7). Being a church member is not the same thing as being a Christian. The latest George Barna report reveals that attendance at an evangelical church such as ours makes those who attend no better morally and ethically than those who don’t. Church attenders are just as likely to commit adultery; steal, cheat in school; use profanity; take drugs, etc.” Paul says in Galatians 5, “Those who live like this, will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
What God wants is found in James 1:27, “Religion that God accepts as genuine is to visit widows and orphans in their time of need and to keep oneself un-dirtied by the world.” (James 1:27). This involves loving charity and moral purity. And it begins with repentant humility as we acknowledge our failures at these two points and trust Jesus to be our Savior and our Lord. You must give Him your sins to forgive and your lives to change and control, asking and trusting Him to make you a person of moral purity and loving charity. Realizing your failures after that, the humility continues as every day we pray for forgiveness and the power to do better tomorrow. This the Christian life and in it we wear two shoes, one is faith in God’s forgiveness through Jesus, and the other is good works he enables us to do, to honor Him (Mt. 5).
When Napoleon’s army invaded Russia they came to a village where everyone had run away in fear except one brave old woodcutter. Because of his bravery he was not shot, but the captain ordered his hand to be branded. The hot iron carved an “N” on the back of his hand. When, in pain, he asked what it meant, they said, "You now belong to Napoleon!" The old man laid his hand on a rock, raised his ax, cut off his hand and said, "I belong to Russia!" When the world comes to you to brand you as one of its own lift up the cross and say, "I belong to Jesus Christ." "I have decided to follow Jesus/No turning back, no turning back/The world behind me, The cross before me/No turning back, no turning back."
