Life Choices

Hi, on this page I will be sharing, reviewing, and recommending resources for children’s, family, and all-age, church-based work. I love to explore and discover new ideas, and creative ways of supporting this fantastic ministry. It’s such a privilege to serve the church and to help make worship meaningful and fun for children and families. I hope you’ll find my ideas and recommendations helpful. 

WHAT WE DO IN LIFE ECHOES IN ETERNITY

I had a work colleague who in his training lectures used to quote General Maximus the fictional character played by Russell Crowe in the movie “Gladiator”. I wondered if this quote could apply to many of the choices we make in life?

Thinking especially of the World Cup game on Saturday when in a split second poor Harry Kane missed that penalty shot by kicking too high to avoid the goalkeeper, and how the commentators kept saying he could have made history. I am sure Kane will regrettably live with the flashbacks of that missed shot forever. He has my greatest sympathy, but at the end of the day it’s a game of sport, it’s not life threatening and there will be other opportunities.

There are many choices we have to make in life every day. When Covid peaked I recall thinking should we venture out today, what if we catch it? And then there are more trivial choices for example – What should we have for dinner tonight? Or what supermarket queue do we join? I inevitably end up thinking I’ve chosen the shortest queue only to realise that the people in front of me have picked up an item without a bar code or a broken package and have had to wait for an assistant to find a replacement thus making the queue wait longer.

I also remember once when we decided to take the train on a journey instead of driving, only to find halfway to our destination that a connection had been cancelled and we had to wait for ages for a bus replacement. In the end we had to be rescued by our family who came to pick us up from an out of the way station. A journey that should have taken one hour ended up four and our choices can not only affect us but have a knock on effect on others.

Four weeks ago, I had to make a quick decision between calling an ambulance out for Ish or driving him myself to the local hospital. In a split second I felt I had no choice but to drive him. An ambulance could have taken up to two hours to reach us because there is a shortage of ambulances. And I would perhaps be calling out an ambulance that could save someone else’s life further away. Thankfully our local hospital is about four mins drive from our house, so I bundled him into my car and got him to A & E within a few minutes of realising that his life could be in danger. Much to my relief in A & E he was seen almost immediately and diagnosed with a minor brain bleed. The hospital staff thanked me for bringing him in quickly instead of calling out an ambulance.

To finish on a positive note there are life choices we make that we just know are absolutely right and they do make us happy and secure with our decisions. It was many years ago that Ish asked me out on our first date on Valentine’s night, six weeks later at Easter he asked me to marry him. I went home that night and prayed that God would help us to make the right choice. The next day we both decided before God that we were right for each other and not only did we have a loving future together but also an exciting ministry. So we got engaged at Easter and six weeks later we got married on 24 June. From our first date to our wedding day was fourteen weeks and we are delighted to say that fifty years later we are even more happily married, we are blessed with a lovely family, and we continue in our old age to serve God.

So, without being overly-dramatic, some choices that we make in life, I am sure may echo in eternity, not only for ourselves but for those we love.

LET US PRAY

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

(The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr)

RESOURCES

Faith and Worship Prayer and Bible Study Resources

Going For Growth Prayer

Church of England Join Us for Daily Prayer

Stories about some of our own life choices can be found in our latest book ‘Our Cancer Journey’ available from our shop.