I am pleased to welcome Fr. David Nixon back to Precious Blood! He will be filling in while I am on vacation.

Choices, Choices, Choices!

“Decide today whom you will serve . . . As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

So says God’s word for us this Sunday, speaking through the great Old Testament leader, Joshua. To live is to decide. Where there are people, there are choices to be made – all sorts of choices. We are forever having to opt for one thing over another. This goes for the small choices of each day (coffee or soda; the yellow dress or the blue one; the beach or the ball game), not to mention the big decisions that shape our lives (relationships, family, career and home).

There’s a story told about St. Theresa of Lisieux that might help us. When she was a girl of seven years, one of her older sisters, Leonie, had decided that it was time to give up her toys. So Leonie gathered her toys into a basket and brought them to where Therese and their other sister, Celine, were playing. Leonie told them that they could each choose one thing from the basket and that the rest would be given to the orphanage. Celine chose a colorful ball. When it came to Therese to choose she was unable to because she was so torn between all the nice things, and said, “I choose them all! I want them all!”

Spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once described his own struggles in choosing like this: I want to be a great saint, but I also want to experience all the sensations that sinners have; I want to spend long hours in prayer, but I don’t want to miss anything on television; and I want to live in radical simplicity, but I also want to have a comfortable apartment, the freedom to travel, and all the things I need to be a professional scholar and writer.

The great philosopher Kierkegaard famously wrote, “To be a saint is to will the one thing.” Ultimately we all need to decide, to choose, to commit, to will the one thing. We cannot live forever sitting on the fence. We need to come down on one side or the other.

The Jesus of the Gospels calls for our choices to be Kingdom choices, revolving around the values of God’s reign and not our own selfish motives. May our choices this week promote Kingdom love and listening, Kingdom justice and peace, Kingdom hope and healing, Kingdom truth and beauty