Choices

There was a man who was walking down the road when he saw something shimmering on the side of the road. When he went to look at it, it moved away from him. So he moved closer and this time, he managed to catch a glimpse of it. He could tell it was beautiful, but he still could not see it completely. So he ran after it. The faster he ran the faster it would flee from him. Every time he got close, it gave him a glimpse of how great it could be which only made him want it even more.

The man spent the rest of his life chasing the shimmering object. He knew how beautiful it was, if he only could see it and touch it. It was the single thing he wanted more than anything in the world. He would chase it until he died.

Some people like to think that the man managed to grab it at the end. Some people think that it was never even obtainable in the first place. While others think that he was a fool for ever chasing it to begin with. This man was not the only one who ran, there were a few people, who saw it, knew what it could be as well, and chased it with him. But how things go in stories like this, they never saw the man. They always kept looking at the object and never to the people beside them, or to where the object came from. They always thought they were alone.

These people spend their whole lives chasing after things that don't belong to them, without ever stopping for a moment to look at what is being offered to them. Right behind each of the people running after the shimmering object, was a man who had bags of them. He would hold up signs for them, he would do miracles for them. Then at one point he saw that these people were in horrible danger and they could not see it coming toward them. So he ran faster than they were, as fast as any man could, and put himself in the way of the danger, making sure everyone of those people, who were still focused on the shimmering object, were safe. And he continued to work for them, making sure he had a bag of shimmering objects for each person out there.

Occasionally one of the people would turn their heads just a tiny bit, and notice that the man was there with a bag. They would stop and look in the bag. He would hand them the bag and say, "I have been trying to show you this for a long time." When the person would look into the bag, everything they had ever hoped, wished, dreamt, wanted for, and things they never even knew they needed, wanted, hoped, wished for, or dreamt of, was in the bag. And they would fall to their knees, smiling and crying. Because in that bag, was something bigger and better than anything. After a while the bag began to grow. It grew so much that the person could now go inside and enjoy what was in there. For what was in the bottom of the bag was everything. And the man stood there with them and told them, welcome home.

For me, it seems like I have chased the shimmering object my entire life. I catch a glimpse of it so I keep running and running, but never looking where I should be. The object changes depending on the person. For me it is friendship, belonging, love. For others it could be money, or drugs. Anything that keeps us focused on what is ahead of us instead of where we should be heading.

Jesus is holding a bag of everything we could ever desire, waiting for us to come and take it. But it has to be our choice to take the bag. What good would a companion be if they were forced into coming with you? That is the hard part of being a Christian. God loves every single sinner so much that he sent himself as his son to die for our sins. It was a gift, for everyone, but we need to accept the gift. We need to choose to be with him.

Found on this page.

So many of us fall into depression, or hate, or gluttony, or lust and we keep our eyes on the shimmering object and we forget that Jesus is there. But on top of that, we also forget that all the things we fall into, they are choices we made. We choose to be depressed, we choose to hate, we choose to indulge ourselves with food, or alcohol, or sex. We choose to chase what we cannot have, because we feel we deserve it.

I am often at fault with this. I feel I deserve a wonderful woman who gets me, laughs at my off kilter jokes. Understands when I make a very obscure reference to some nerdy thing. she can handle my angry moments, and embraces me when I am an ass. But I really don't deserve her. Because my anger is often an indulgence. My ass-ness is often me celebrating being an ass. How can I deserve a perfect woman when I am not willing to give up my own faults. How can I deserve a perfect God when I will not give up myself and follow him fully.

And I guess that brings me to the choices I have to make. For me to deserve what God has to offer, I should be more like his son. For him to bring me the girl I so desire, I have to get ready for her. I need to give up being an ass, being angry, give up my depression to the only God who lives. It will be a hard journey, and I believe it is one we all need to take. Give ourselves up to our crosses every day, so we can live with Him.

I deserve death, I got life from my God. I have been given the chance to love him with all I am, because he so loved me first. I will fail, because I am man, but I will continue to work at choosing to be happy, work at choosing to follow with all I am. Start with me. Everyone of you who read this, I invite you to start choosing to be happy, content, fulfilled, and loved because God has all that and so much more waiting in a bag of shimmering things just for you.