Choose Wisely

Anytime I hear or think these two words together, I think of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" when they walk into the room with the knight and the hundreds of chalices. And in that scene, the man who chooses poorly dies.

This morning I was thinking about the things I may need on my "to do" list today. In fact, on any given day there are dozens of things that I might need or want to do, but I only have probably sixteen hours before I have to sleep again. In the movie, all but one of the chalices was made of precious metal and heavily jeweled--but they all led to death. Similarly, I could choose entertainment, or housework, or crafting of some sort, in addition to doing school with the kids. None of these is intrinsically evil, and "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:", I just don't always do things in their proper "season".

So as I thought about the things crying out for attention today, I prayed that I would choose wisely what I devote my time to. "Wisely" is kind of subjective. What may be "wise" for today might NOT be "wise" tomorrow or next week-- which is why I need help to recognize today's wise choices. I'm not afraid that I'll die if I choose poorly, but there will most certainly be consequences... The good news is that there is no choice I can make to cause God to love me any more or less than He already does in Christ! =)

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Romans 6:8-16