Today friend, it’s time to decide! Who are you going to follow?
SHAUNA: I’m Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope with a story from Joni about decisions.
JONI: And this story centers around Margaret, a woman about my age. Margaret was a flower child in the sixties. She had the tie-dyed shirts and the rings and things, the colored beads, the long, frizzy hair, driving a Volkswagen with peace symbols painted all over it. Her college campus suited her perfectly: outspoken, free-wheeling, and liberal to her liking. Margaret was a rebel. Her apartment, that she shared with a few girlfriends, and occasionally a guy or two, had posters saying that making love was a whole lot better than making war. And Margaret prided herself on her diversity. Whether that diversity meant men, the latest and newest drug to try, or her take on religions.
Margaret had looked into all the religions: Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Agnosticism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity. On the back of her very colorful Volkswagen van, she had a bumper sticker for every philosophy or religion. There were times she honestly wondered which one was the right way, and she even knew enough about Christianity to understand that Jesus said that “I am the Way.” But her conscience kept her from going very deep into that. In her heart of hearts, she knew that of all the religions, Christianity demanded the most. In fact, it demanded her life. So, for the time being, her investigation of the world’s great faiths went about as thick as those bumper stickers.
One day at college, coming out of class, as she was heading to her Volkswagen parked nearby, she noticed a note that was tucked under the windshield wiper. She took the note, looked around for whoever it was who left it, but nobody was nearby. So, she unfolded it, and when she read its message, she fell against the side of the van. The note had only one word written on it, the word “Decide.” That’s all, just— “decide.” In that moment, Margaret knew what the note meant. She also knew the truth. Jesus, not Buddha, not Mohammed, not Confucius, but Jesus was telling her to decide. And so, that day, in a college parking lot, by her Volkswagen van, she yielded her life to Christ, as much as she knew how. And the rest is pretty much history. Margaret got connected with some Christians on campus, began to learn—actually, she began to fervently study the Word of God. And today, many decades later? She’s a Biblical counselor, in love with God’s Word, as well as the people God longs to reach. She is a satisfied woman who truly understands the depravity of humanity, yet she also understands the soul-shaking power of freedom in Christ. The kind of freedom that breaks even the strongest chains of sin and rebellion.
And it all started with one simple word, “decide.” Friend, today maybe you are a little like Margaret, toying with things about which your conscience keeps whispering. Maybe you are the rebel, swayed by sin and unsatisfied, testing the waters of other religions. If so, Joshua 24 has a word for you: “Choose...this day whom you will serve…” Choose is a lot like Margaret’s word, “decide.” And whether you are a castaway or a Christian, it is something God is calling you to do this day. It’s something all of us must do every day: Decide, choose, resolve, make ever so certain by your decisions and choices that you are serving God and not serving the flesh. And Margaret would say, “Good choice!”
© Joni and Friends