CHASING SHADOWS

I wish I really knew what awaits at the end of each path

Have you ever wondered how many decisions you make in a typical day? Have you ever wondered how many of those decisions were the right ones? How many were wrong? Are there decisions you wish you never made till this day? What was the best decision you ever made? I can hear some of you already saying, it is only Uche that will bother to analyze such, but indulge me and read on.J

As my curiosity mounted, I decided to find some answers on Google. It is not surprising that there are many different opinions on this topic including scientific researches, however while they could not all agree a number; most of them agree that we make at least 500 decisions a day? Yes 500 decisions!!! That is, we choose between alternatives at least 500 times a day! Now imagine that only 10% of your decisions are wrong, I think that is still a lot.

Interestingly, about the same time I was pondering on the word choices especially that sometimes today’s choices may negatively impact tomorrow. It reminded me of an incident with my toddler; I caught him trying so hard to pick up his elusive shadow. It made me smile as I watched him until he got bored and decided to go off and do something else. But watching him was very educative; at least I learnt the new meaning of ‘chasing shadows’ both from the onlooker and the shadow chaser perspective. One thing I learnt is that while it was obvious to me from the onset that he will not be able to pick up his shadow, it wasn’t to him. I promised myself to always keep this in mind when I am advising someone on what I think is the obvious right and s/he believes otherwiseJ.  

Back to the discussion on decisions, our focus today is the impact of our choices. Every decision we make has an impact – either on you, someone else or both. What varies is the degree of impact, some impacts are negligible, some can be reversed within a reasonable time frame while others can impact forever. Unfortunately, it is not always so easy to see the long term impact of today’s decision. Ruth choose to follow Naomi in spite of the gloomy circumstances and she a Moabites has her name in history as the great-grandmother of Israel’s greatest king and mentioned in the linage of our Lord Jesus Christ. I really doubt that she had expected all that when unlike Ophir, she insisted on going with Naomi (Ruth1). Learning from my toddler’s experience, someone could be chasing shadows and not even know itL. No wonder the bible talks about a way that seemeth right but the end is destruction (Prob14:12). 

The most important choice one can make is to give his/her life to Jesus Christ and almost as important is to allow the Holy Spirit to direct our every choice. Knowing that the spirit of Him who knows all things is guiding your choices (Heb4:13), even if the choice appears not the best choice on the surface, you can be rest assured that you are making the right choice.

Dear Friends, let us pray that our decisions today will not negatively impact our tomorrow or worse still our children’s tomorrow. Heavenly Father, in any way I taking the way that seemeth right to me but is leading to destruction, in your mercy redirect my steps (Ps119:115) . Dear Jesus, I do not want to run this race on my own strength as I know I will fail, I need you every step of the way. Holy Spirit come upon me afresh, and please direct my path, be the voice that tells me this is the way to go and I will listen to it, so that I will not miss God’s plan and purpose for my life. (Isa30:21).

Remain blessed