Your life as it is at this moment in time is the result of the choices you have made within the circumstances God has allowed in your life. It has been said many times in many ways. You made your bed, now lie in it. He is a self made man. She knew what she wanted and went after it. There is no limit to what God can do with someone who is wholly surrendered to Him. All true, all based on choices.
But what about the times or places or circumstances when you seemingly have no choice? What about when the circumstances placed before you are without understanding as to how you got there? What about when you don’t have the knowledge or skill or ability or even the fortitude to choose well?
We can all think of circumstances or events which fall under the “But what about” category. We feel so out of control, at the mercy of others or even feeling no mercy at all. The times when health or emotions or finances seem to be devastated behind any human ability to deal with it. It is then that most of us make life altering choices which are either the best thing that ever happened to us or the beginning of the end of what we referred to as a normal life.
Focus is what makes a picture wonderful or discarded. A well focused picture is one that is centered on the most important subject. It reveals the sharpest aspects and deepest content of the subject.
One piece of fruit hanging on one tree in a vast orchard has different perspectives if it is photographed from six inches, six feet, six yards or or 6 miles. If the focus of the lens is always on that one piece of fruit, then no matter the distance and no matter the additional scenes captured in the picture, the fruit is always seen and can be zoomed in on to reveal it as the purpose of the photograph.
The fruit didn’t get to pick the type of fruit it would be. Nor did it pick the tree it was on, or how it was fed, or how many other pieces of fruit were like it or different. In fact the fruit gets almost no choice in where it blooms, when to is harvested or how it is used. You however, get a few choices. I’m thinking of a young lady who grew up as a pretty normal child into a beautiful teenager who one day made a choice to dive into a lake. When she awoke in the hospital as a quadriplegic she had some choices to make. She has since become a leading proponent for disabled persons needs and access to a full life within the confines of their circumstances. Others in very similar circumstances have made much different choices, some withering away and some even dying by their own choice. Some choose comfort and compassion, some choose chaos.
God did not create humans to be fruit without choice. Satan walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The Bible warns of of his tactics and that he can even appear as an angel of light to deceive us and cause us to choose wrongly.
He plucks fruit off the tree of life before it is ready, without regard for what it could have become. Even if you have made choices which have placed you in the way of destruction which the devil delights in. You have another choice to make. Even if you feel like you have been forever removed from the life God desires for you, you still have another choice. He said “today if you will listen diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God, I will set you high above all nations”.
The problem that most people have in their choices is that we listen to the opinions of those who have neither the power not the desire to give us the best things which can be known in this life. Even if we have made poor choices in the past, like the woman who dove in the shallow lake, if we are yet living we can choose better.
The first response to this bold statement I expect to hear is the one I have uttered myself. “But what about…”
But what about the circumstances? But what about the other people? But what about the cost? But what about the opinions of whomever? All valid questions. All things to consider, if; If they are more important to you than what is best for you. If they matter more than the relationship you were meant to have with the God who intended for you to be born to love him all the days of your life. The focus of God’s camera is on you. At six inches from your heart or six million miles away, His focus is on you and what is best in your life for your relationship with Him. He knows the choices you have made and the choice which He now puts before you. He knows the deception you have fallen for and He knows the healing and restoration which is one choice away.
Yes, there are many “But what about” questions which can be raised. Some of them are from all appearance and understanding, of great significance. So let me bring up one more. “But What About Jesus?” What about what He did? What about His desire to walk with you and talk with you and heal your life and love you forever? What about the good that will result in the lives of those you love and care about which will come from you choosing to ask Him into your life? What about having peace beyond all human understanding? What about being comforted by the indwelling Holy Spirit in the hardest of trials that others can only fall apart in? What about the intense over powering tugging at your heart that you feel right now?
Maybe you would like to ask “But what about me, Lord”. This applies whether you are just now recognizing your need to consider a relationship with Him or if you have known His grace for many years. You can spend a lifetime asking “But what about”. Or you could take a moment to say “Yes, Lord”. A moment to ask Him what is best in His eyes and then ask for the strength of will to do what He asks. It is for your good. He is already as good as good gets. He wants you to lay aside all the other “But what about” questions and be who He desires. You can be what He sees in His lens from over six million miles away, the apple of His eye.
So what about it?