On the Capacity to Choose by Chris White

A number of years ago a study was done to measure the level of satisfaction people receive in their choices.  The test group was given a choice of a free gift.  Half of the respondents were given the option of returning their gift for something different and the other half only had one chance to decide without the option of returning it.  What they found in this exercise is that the people who had the right to renege on their choice were less happy than the ones who had one chance to make the right choice.  What was the difference?  Those who had the option to change seemed to focus mostly on why their first choice was flawed.  Those whose decision was set in stone from the start tended to fully embrace their decision and focus on its upsides.  No surpise then that this latter group had more satisfaction and happiness than the first group as their focus was on the positives rather than the negatives of their choice.

Do you realize that your choices are both a privilege and responsibility given to you by God?  A.W. Tozer writes “God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil.  When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it” (Knowledge of the Holy).   God has baked-in to his plan for the universe human choices that his image-bearers would have the potential to advance in their moral understanding and capacity by choosing the good (that which God has said is good) over evil (as God has so defined it).

Our original parents (Adam and Eve) failed miserably in their choice of choosing to be autonomous ( a law unto themselves) over obeying the God Himself in the Garden of Eden.  Despite this being the wrong choice, it reveals the high dignity God gives his creation in that the choice was very real as were the consequences and aftermath.  While all of us have inherited a predisposition towards rebellion that remains in us even after regeneration, it is regeneration by the Holy Spirit that restores within us the moral capacity to choose good over evil once again.  Where once moral failure was almost a certainty, the growing Christian begins to experience moral victories punctuated with occasional failures.

This moral capacity grows through continual exercise and testing.  Life is full of choices, some of them minor, some of them destiny shaping, and a whole lot of them in-between.  Obviously, the most important  decision in life is how you will respond to Jesus Christ and His message of redemption and deliverance from the penalty of your sins before a holy God.   This decision radically alters not only your present life but your eternal destiny.   But alongside that is also the decision you face anytime you are in the midst of a trial, affliction, or persecution.  Am I going to trust in God’s truth and goodness or am I going to go elsewhere?  Elizabeth Elliot in her wonderful book  A Path Through Suffering reminds us of the vital importance of viewing our circumstances through the love of God rather than viewing the love of God through our circumstances.  To fail to do this leads us to a distorted view of God and the gospel where love and favor is earned and therefore easily lost as opposed to being a covenantal gift because Christ absorbed my sin and took my punishment upon Himself.

Another decision that some would regard as a “non-decision” is the decision to stay the course, or more to the point, stay on course.  This also helps us to grow our moral capacity as persons.  One author refers to this as a “long obedience in the same direction.”  We live in a society with a short attention span and often we find ourselves bored and wanting to change things.   In some cases this is no big deal such as changing the color of your hair or the flavor of coffee creamer you use.  In other cases this can have long-term devastating effects like changing your marital status to divorced and available or from gainfully employed to unemployed and dropping out.  Of course there are exceptions to this, but in the main, staying settled in a prior choice, even if difficult or costly in terms of emotional pain or stress, is a position God uses most often to grow us up and refine our characters.  Often times we think change is going to be the thing that makes us happy, when in fact, as illustrated in the study at the beginning, staying the course frees us to more fully appreciate what we actually do have.