Christian Living

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CHOICE IS YOURS

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…”( Deut 30: 15-20).
My
life has been tremendously blessed by the inputs from teachers and lecturers who had instructed me in the four walls of classrooms at the various stages of my formal education. My former anatomy lecturer at Bayero University Kano, late Prof. P.L Shuklah ( of blessed memory) stands out for the indelible impact he made on my mind as a 20-years old guy. He encouraged me on the path of intellectual growth and independent thinking. His seemingly boring lectures were interjected with nuggets of wisdom garnered from his years of professional career as a medical doctor and anatomy teacher in various countries and universities across the world. In his distinct Indian accent he would say with emphasis: “CHOICE IS YOURS!”

And over the years since graduation, I have come to accept the veracity and wisdom in what he drummed into our ears. For life is governed by the choices we made in the past, the ones we will make today, and the choices available to us tomorrow and in the nearest future. No doubt, the decisions of our significant others influence what happens to us and vice versa. Nevertheless and to a considerable degree of accuracy, the outcomes and experiences that come our way as adults are considerably determined by the choices we make in every area of our lives.

This is better appreciated when we assess the quality and depth of spiritual maturity we exhibit as Christians who are expected to reflect the glory, wisdom and power of God. When our spiritual lives are sorted out, and our relationship with God is dynamic and constantly worked on, we will live a quality of life that is beyond the ordinary irrespective of our position or strata in the society.

The choice is ours and we have no one to blame for whatever level or rung we are presently occupying in the Kingdom of God since God is an impartial judge who has no favorites to lift up over and above His other children. So the choice is ours and not God’s and the poem below which I just wrote summarizes this train of thought:

Concluding Verse:

The choice is yours, not God’s or his angels
For he has given you the freewill to choose
The options that life presents daily to you

But he expects that you will choose right
Over wrong and all that your heart knows to be evil
For the choice is yours and not another’s

When you come to the crossroads of life and death
He would that you will choose wisely and disdain wrong
For when you choose right, you secure your right to live

When you are faced with the temptation to sin
He expects that you will resist, reject and refuse the temptation
For in choosing to live right, you honour your Father in heaven

When sleep hits your eyes while your bed beckons with a plea
You can wipe your eyes, and hit the floor with your knees in prayer
For that was the choice that saints and patriarchs of old made to attain
The spiritual heights and deeper depths of fellowship they had with God


When stuck in the valley of despair and desolation
You can trudge on to the mountain of triumphs and victories
For the Choice is yours, and not God’s nor his angels
Since he knows you can scale every mountain that comes your way

When situations turn awry and gloomy ,and hope dims
You have a choice to whimper and complain endlessly
But you can choose to roll up your sleeves and make a change
For that was the reason why you are worthy of seeing the sun’s smile
Rather than be food to worms in the bosom of the earth

You have a choice to neglect the hungry, the sick and the scum of society
And live comfortably in your mansions and walled up castles
But their cries of desperation nevertheless will rise up to heaven
Till someone else hears and wipes their tears, and gets rewarded
For God will not despise every good deed done in His name
So the Choice is yours, not God’s nor His angels!
(© Felix Abrahams Obi, 2:55AM, 31st May 2008)

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