Are You Like Indiana Jones?

Happy Monday everyone!  I expect that your weekend was great and that you are looking forward to an exciting new week.  

After I had to push through a few clouds that were attempting to darken my day today, I jumped into the shower and forced myself to concentrate on nothing except the Lord.  You know, that’s not always an easy task.  It is amazing how many distracting and totally unconnected thoughts can come knocking on the door of your mind when you try to focus on Heavenly things.  Have you ever experienced that?

Well, today I was successful as I enjoyed the hot water and the warm bright sunlight that was streaming through the window above our shower.  Later when I came downstairs and was peeking out the large sliding door in our kitchen, I began to think about a conversation that I had with one of my daughters yesterday.  She was relating to me how she was learning to take a more active role in the direction of her daily moods.  She had taken an inventory of her usual routine and decided that there were things that she did that tended to bring her down.  So she decided to make a change.  A little less of this, and a little more of that... whatever it would take to brighten her countenance and allow her to be an even stronger witness of the joy and encouragement of the Lord, to those who are close to her!  What my daughter did was to choose life instead of death in the sneaky form of depression and laziness!

At the end of his presence on this earth, Moses gathered the children of Israel together and reiterated to them all the promises that God had made to them over the years.  In Deuteronomy 30:19 he concludes by saying: “I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life and death, blessings or curses.  Choose life that you and your descendents shall live.”  (Gods Word ©)  This wisdom still stands true to us today.

It is a decision that we need to make on a regular basis… sometimes even daily!  My wife and I recently witnessed a first hand view of the effects of a couple that are in the process of allowing the reigns of life to slip out of their hands.  A quick glance around their home shows all the signs of the tightening grips of the darkness of depression.  It is not a pretty sight to behold. 

The Lord spoke through Moses and encouraged His people to choose life so that they would live the kind of life that He had purposed, and provided for them to live.  How will you choose?  For some reason I just remembered a line toward the end of the third Indiana Jones movie where the thousand year old knight exclaims to Indiana, after he drank from the waters of life with the correct chalice, that “You have chosen wisely!”  Indiana then proceeds to save his father from death, single handedly defeat the enemy, and then ride off into a beautiful sunset.  I guess it’s kind of an analogy of what can happen to and/or through us when we choose the life that our Heavenly father has provided for us to experience.

I encourage you to take Moses’ challenge today and choose life.  Allow His joy to be your strength and His peace to be your guide.  Then as you look up into the heavens, you’ll hear that wonderful still, small voice say to you:  “You chose wisely, well done my good and faithful servant!”  (see Matthew 25:23)  Stay tuned, have a GREAT week and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today!”