The Choice Hiding Behind the Decision

The world forces us to make choices. We are awash in choices.

• Where to eat? Burgers? Chinese? Barbecue? And then, where?
• What to wear?
• What route should you take to work or school? Is it full of construction cones? (Aren’t they all!)

Some may add to our waistline, change our appearance, or contribute to our delay. Small choices have small consequences.

Then, some choices seem innocent until time peels back the layers to see what lies underneath them.

• The school we attend.
• The place we live.
• The size and price of our houses.
• Our occupation.

And the list goes on and on.

Some choices are easy and some stump you. But one truth lingers. All choices have consequences.

You may choose to go to Hawaii in the first week of June, but miss your niece’s wedding. Your choice will have consequences. Either you lose money on a trip of a lifetime or have a lifetime of conflict with a sister.

All suffer from the smörgåsbord effect. You can eat whatever and all you can eat. But the choice may have the consequence of getting sick.

Someone who drinks chooses impairment.

A smoker risks a football-size tumor growing in a lung in their 60s.

When we make choices, we block out the negative, believing it will never happen to us.

Lot is an example.

The nephew of the patriarch Abraham had to choose. The older man gave him a gift and a curse. You can choose the land you want and then you will live there.

Two shepherds with separate flocks always have problems. Sheep devastate pastures. No grass, no profit. It came time for Abraham and Lot to separate for the good of both.

Lot, it’s your choice.

He gazed to the north with its semi-desert dotted with only a few scrub plants. As he made his panorama sweep to the south, the landscape changed. The brown desert gave way to well-watered plains. The grass was lush, plentiful, and beckoning.

Had he looked closer, he would have seen more, but what was in front of his eyes grabbed his attention.

He, his family, and the herdsman made their journey. Flocks increased in both number and size. But he needed more, closer to whatever civilization was there. A nearby town looked bountiful, a place called Sodom. He moved his family to the hem of its garment.
But over time, nice homes and influence pervaded Lot’s mind. His wife started dreaming. Finally, Lot relented and moved into the city. The town’s tenor of life and lifestyle vexed his soul, but he soon tamped that down. Perhaps he could be the change agent.
He became a leader in the town, one of the town fathers who sat at the gate making decisions.

The problem is Lot did not move into Sodom. Sodom moved into Lot.

Daughters found young men. It looked good. The sounds in the streets at night moaned like panthers in heat, but closed hearts ignore the noise.

One night, a rap on the door startled Lot. Two strangers stood before him. He invited them in, gave them the customary bread and wine, and they spoke.

“It’s dangerous here, and the Lord will destroy it as early as sunrise.” Lot was incredulous.

That’s when the angry voices followed by a violent pounding on his door. Lot knew the town and what was happening. The perversion of Sodom was the worst-kept secret of the area. Men abused men for both enjoyment and entertainment.

He knew the men inside his house were in danger.
So he dangled his virgins’ daughters in front of their lustful leers, but they would have none of that. They knew men were in the house and would take them by force if necessary.

One man yanked Lot back into the house and bolted the door.

“It’s time. The Lord is coming tonight. The city will turn to ashes along with all in it. We’ve come to get you out.”

Lot shouted at his family, but they chuckled at how backward he seemed to become. But the two strangers had no time for debate.
They grabbed Lot and his family and propelled them out of the city as the conflagration lit up the sky. Screams carried through the distance, but then disappeared. Lot’s wife agonized. Her dreams and memories were aflame. She glanced and hardened into a pillar of salt.

Lot, now a widower, took his two daughters to the hills. He ended up fathering children with his own daughters.

It all started with Abraham’s question, “Lot, where do you want to live?”

Choices have consequences, even consequences we cannot see.
Never approach choices as innocent. You can do as you please, as long as you don’t mind paying the price for your actions. As the saying goes, “You cannot have your cake and eat it too.”

So choose carefully because you have to live with your choices.