"Make good choices!" ~Jamie Lee Curtis to Lindsey Lohan in Freaky Friday
I love that line. I say it to my kids all the time.
Talking with a friend from high school yesterday, we were discussing choices you make and how they effect your life.
Some of our decisions are thoughtless or automatic: get up, go to work, eat, sleep. Some are very intentional: who we marry, where we live, what job we do, who our friends are...a thousand choices each day. Some are little, some big, but each significant in it's own way.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you..." ~ Jesus (John 15: 16a)
Jesus made choices too. How he spent his time, who his friends were, where he stayed. He chose His disciples. He chose people--picked people to follow Him. Conventional wisdom would say that he didn't choose too well...common laborers, hated IRS workers, women with questionable pasts... Rob Bell called his followers "the B team".
Why did he choose them?
Why did he choose me?
Because of my achievements?... minimal. My education... ordinary. My athletic prowess?... laughable. My intellect? limited. My moral code or ability to follow rules?...doubtful.
So why? Why did he choose me or you, if you're a Christ follower?
The fact is, he didn't choose any of us for any merit or strength of our own and he didn't choose us for our sakes.
He chose me and you "and appointed [us] to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last..." ~John 15:16
So it wasn't for our merits and wasn't so we could be forgiven and saved (yet we are) but he chose us to "bear fruit--fruit that will last".
He chose us so we could feed others with the fruit of the Spirit...so we could bless others with more of Him.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galations 5:22,23
2 comments:
In another one of the gospels, in Matthew, it reads "Well done good and faithful servant."
You are bearing fruit, fruit that will last, friend, and that will one day result in quite a welcoming party for Patty when He calls you home.
I pray we all bear fruit - fruit that will last! Thanks for sharing today - you hit me right between the eyes.
Beautiful...when I am going to get it that it's not because of who I am or what I've done (thank goodness!) as if anything is good enough.
You, my friend, are a fruit tree! Love the post.
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