IS IT WORTH IT?

In life, we are called upon to make a variety of decisions. Some decisions we make out of our own choosing. Inevitably, the choices we make lead to consequences. Sometimes the scale of the decisions and consequences are relatively insignificant. They result in no lasting or profound impact. There are of course other instances when the scale of choices and consequences is nothing short of life-altering, for good or for bad. In times when the consequences are surprising painful and difficult, or harsher than we might have anticipated, we are tempted to doubt the correctness of the course of action we embarked upon that led us to such a challenging place.

God knows, there are a few decisions I have made in life that have resulted in challenge and adversity of a magnitude that I did not foresee. These are the kinds of unexpected pathways that can lead to incredibly testing physiological and psychological pressures that cause me to question the reasoning that motivated the original decisions. It can be a very disarming experience to feel uncertain about the most important decisions you have made in your life. It is an uncertainty brought about by the painful reality of present hardships that stare me mercilessly in the face. A key question emerges in times like these: If I could travel back in time with the hindsight I have now, to those critical crossroads in my life, would I choose the same way, knowing full well the gravity of the consequences that await me down the line? As I weigh the good versus the bad, how does it reflect on the way I have chosen (or maybe the Way who has chosen me)?

That is the true test of the soundness of any decision, and with that measurement in mind, I have to deduce that my life in this moment is as it should be...perhaps even as it was meant to be. This is for me a perplexing statement to make, given the weight of the uncertainties and hardships that I face. Be that as it may, when I contemplate the major decisions in my life, I would make the same choice given the same circumstances. This is no guarantee of having chosen correctly (though by the grace of God that is hopefully the case), but it is an indication of choosing honestly. What do I therefore conclude? That my life as I know it had better be in the hands of Jesus. It must be. God help me, it must. I do not wish to be in a place of my own creation, and in spite of all my fallibility and weaknesses my hope is that God would guide me mercifully to a place of His making instead. To be anywhere else is to labour and build on shifting sand.
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Grant Alexander Cyster owns the blog entitled "I THINK, THEREFORE I ACHE.", offered as part of his Cape Town based freelance media business at: www.grantcyster.com