It has been said – and wisely, I believe – that choices are the hinges of destiny. We make a huge mistake when we fool ourselves into thinking that the seemingly little decisions we make everyday do not make a big difference in our lives.
The novelist, Albert Camus, said, “Life is the sum of all your choices.”
This year will treat each of us the same in terms of time and opportunities for choosing. Each opportunity carries with it a responsibility for those of us who are followers of Jesus to think and act wisely rather than foolishly, to think and act selflessly rather than selfishly. Our choices come with accountability – to God and to others.
The difficulty in life, whether in 2008 or the years following, will continue to be choices. Our decisions will prove to be either helpful or hurtful in our journeys of faith. Every choice we make has an end result.
Choices will determine, in large measure, whether you and I will find more reason for satisfaction than for sorrow when we are compelled by time to reflect honestly on how we have lived.
How we live is a choice. We can choose to lead lives that matter, that have significance, that count for something. I recently ran across an essay by Michael Josephson that is inspiring and instructive. It is entitled “What Will Matter?”
“Ready or not,” he wrote, “some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
“Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
“So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
“So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.
“What will matter is not your success but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
“What will matter is not your competence but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
“What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
“Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
“It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.”
For you and me, if significance is what we seek in 2008, it is not a question of whether we can or cannot live lives that matter. Instead, it is a question of whether we will or will not. It is a choice. Choose wisely in 2008.