Choose Your Destiny

For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

Romans 2:6-8

What do you hope is your destiny?

How do you want your life to unfold?

I venture to say that all of us ponder these questions many times in our lives. With or without a particular faith, I doubt it is possible for anyone to live a life and not wonder what direction that life is taking.

Certainly I have contemplated that very thing, and on more than one occasion.

I have contemplated it in good times and bad. I have contemplated it while basking in the glory of success and wondering “what next?” I have contemplated it while in the depths of despair and wondering “what now?”

As I suspect is true for everyone, I have always desired to live a good life, and a successful life. I want to have the respect of those around me. I have enough ego to want to be seen as a man of substance and significance, a man who is to be taken seriously in all things.

I have enough realism to know that I usually take myself way too seriously, and that invariably I will encounter just the right bit of absurdity to remind me of that when my ego outpaces my common sense.

But I also have enough realism to understand that if I want people to respect me then I owe it to myself to be respectable. If I want people to take me seriously I owe it to myself to be a serious person.

If I am casual and careless, that is how I will be regarded. If I am flippant and callow that is how I will be seen.

While none of us are ever in total control of our lives, we always are in command of our choices. We choose how to respond to events that unfold both good and bad. We choose whether to lash out in anger or to respond with reason.

As I have said many times before, from our choices come our actions. From our actions come reactions. From reactions come consequences. With or without a particular faith, for each of us this is always the order of things.

Yet it is not enough to merely be deliberate in our choices. Yes, we must choose, and therefore we owe it to ourselves to choose wisely, but we must also be serious and thoughtful about what wisdom will guide our choices. We must be intentional in choosing, but we must also be intentional in reasoning.

The equivalent of the Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 can be found in many of the world’s faiths, from Islam to Buddhism. Only one such faith is Christianity. Only one such faith begins with the Good News that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If we aspire to live a good life we certainly are choosing a good starting point if we acknowledge the Golden Rule, and strive to put that simple edict into practice. Yet we are not choosing the same outcome if we apprehend the Golden Rule as a Buddhist teaching or an Islamic teaching rather than a Christian teaching.

Matthew 7:12 is not a Buddhist teaching.

Matthew 7:12 is not an Islamic teaching.

Matthew 7:12 is a Christian teaching.

Even though Buddhism and Islam carry a teaching like that of the Golden Rule, they do not proceed from the two Great Commandments taught by Jesus. They do not proceed from the teaching to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. They do not proceed from the teaching to love your neighbor as you love yourself. These are the teachings of Mosaic Law and of Jesus.

Thus the choice to lead a “Christian” life, to embrace Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior, to accept His sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary and the Redemption He thus achived for all mankind, is a larger choice than merely choosing to follow the Golden Rule and other similar teachings of goodness and compassion for others.

The choice to lead a “Christian” life is a choice to accept that understanding of what is good and what is evil taught by Jesus and by the whole of Scripture.

The choice to lead a “Christian” life is the choice to accept that which Jesus taught was good as the definition of “good”, and the choice to accept that which Jesus taught was evil as the definition of “evil.”

The choice to lead a “Christian” life is a choice to accept Jesus’ teachings as the “why” of all that one does in every day.

Naturally, I believe that the choice to lead a “Christian” life is a good choice. I believe that the outcome of a “Christian” life is a good outcome, and it is the outcome I desire for myself.

If I desired a different outcome, I would necessarily be compelled to choose a different life. I would necessarily be compelled to choose a text other than the Bible as sacred Scripture. I would necessarily be compelled to look for my salvation elsewhere than on the Cross at Calvary.

If I desired a different outcome, I could not be “Christian”.

Would that be so bad? Yes. Because I do not desire a different outcome. I do not desire to be apart from God. I do not desire to reject the salvation found on the Cross at Calvary.

I choose a “Christian” life. I choose a “Christian” destiny.

My prayer on every day is that I will not be distracted from that destiny. My prayer on every day is that I will stay true to my choice, and stay true to my commitment. My prayer on every day is that I will continue to live a “Christian” life.

My prayer for you is that you will not be distracted from whatever destiny you have chosen. My prayer for you is that you will stay true to your life’s choices, and stay true to your commitments. My prayer for is that you will choose to live a “Christian” life.

I do not know what life will bring me next. Whatever life does bring me next, my choice is to receive it as a “Christian”, and to make a “Christian” good out of it.

That is the destiny I choose. What destiny do you choose?