Between Stimulus And Response, We Have The Opportunity To Choose
Freedom of choice! How we love it! What we don't like is the responsibility that accompanies our choices… especially when the consequences of our choices take us sideways. So we rationalize:
"I came from a dysfunctional family." "My father never told me he loved me." "The devil made me do it."
Perhaps for too long we have indulged in this thing called LIBERTY: Making choices without bearing the responsibility of those choices. In the U. S. we have the STATUE OF LIBERTY on the East Coast. Maybe what we need is a STATUE OF RESPONSIBILITY on the West Coast. We could all then choose to live somewhere between LIBERTY and RESPONSIBILITY!
"BETWEEN STIMULUS AND RESPONSE, WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE"
Often, when given choices, we choose poorly as did the Jews when Christ offered them intimacy and protection:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate." (Matthew 23:37, 18)
Joshua, on the other hand, stands out as one who responded correctly in making the right choice:
"Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)
BETWEEN STIMULUS AND RESPONSE WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE.
We may not always be able to control the stimulus that confronts us, but we can choose to respond correctly. Ultimately, the battlefield of our spiritual lives lies in the will: How and what we choose will reflect the very core of our secret life in God.