CHOOSE YE THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE

When Joshua gave this challenge to Israel he pretty much challenged them to make one final and forever choice and, thereafter, refrain from straying from the demands of their choice. It would be wonderful if life were so easy, but contrary to Joshua’s invitational challenge, choosing whom and how we serve does not seem to be a one time and done experience in life. In fact the real irony of his admonition is that every decision we make, whether great or small, we are at that moment choosing anew whom and how we will serve.

Another thing to consider about the phenomena with which we are confronted continually is as we are choosing whom and how we will serve, we are also setting into action determining factors which will result, in a large measure, in the creation of the person we will ultimately become.

To avoid turning this Thought into a dissertation I will limit the objects of our constant choosing ‘whom’ we will serve to the following three categories.

SELF – OTHERS – GOD

Choosing to serve self

I will immediately dodge the temptation of turning this portion of this Thought into another harangue against selfishness and instead talk about the fact that many of the choices we make in life are out of necessity made because we are choosing to serve ourselves.

Even the most casual of inventories of the hours we choose to spend rejuvenating our bodies with sleep, keeping our bodies clean, clothing our bodies, sheltering our bodies, relaxing and re-creating our bodies will quickly divulge that we spend an inordinate amount of time in activities where self is the ‘whom’ we have chosen to serve.

It seems the product of the many hours I spend in self-serving will be determined by whether I choose to spend sufficient time in these ‘necessary’ activities of life or if I become overly self-indulgent.

Another key in keeping my self-serving choices in the proper perspective seems to be whether I make these choices with the end of gaining the honors of men. Apparently, sufficiency is within the realm of righteous choosing, but choosing with the gaining of the honors of men in mind puts me into unrighteous overindulgence.

Somehow I have got to find some way to maintain a healthy level of self-esteem without falling into the pitfalls which attend pride.

Choosing to serve others

Although it becomes an almost impossible task to avoid at least some momentary acts of service to others, the limit to which we choose to extend that service comes frequently. One of the first and more frequent choices we make is how large we allow our circle of others to become.

We must choose whether the ‘whom’ of others includes or is limited to a spouse or children or extended family or church brothers and sisters or local community or national community or world community.

We must choose whether the ‘how’ I am choosing to serve, includes financial donations or my time or my talents and to what degree my service will help eliminate pain and suffering and raise the standard of living of those I have chosen to include in my circle of others.

Once I have defined the limits of the ‘whom’ and ‘how’ of the others I have chosen to serve, I will have to continue to make choices about whether my actions are moving those in my circle towards independence or dependence.

I must be vigilant in making sure that my activities in ‘whom’ and ‘how’ among the others I have chosen to serve are being done because of love and compassion and not because I have found an altruistic means of getting others to heap honors upon me.

It is always an interesting conundrum to be able to lose oneself while finding others to serve.

Choosing to serve God

Even with the very limited understanding any of us might have as to who God is, we will probably all quickly arrive at some level of understanding of the strange dichotomy that all that is created is His. Therefore, how can I serve him?

As for me and my house we will choose to serve him by attempting to help in his work, which he has declared to be the bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of his children.

I have found that The Preacher was right in declaring that for everything there is a season. In helping to bring to pass the ends of Heavenly Fathers works, I have found there to be a season when I have been most productive by choosing to Proclaim His Gospel to all who have chosen to have a sincere desire to hear. There has been a season when I have been most productive by choosing to up lift by brothers and sisters in His church. There has been a season when I have been most productive by choosing to go to the Lord’s House and aid in helping in the redemption of those who have sojourned on earth without the advantage of knowing His Plan.

Although the arena of activity in which I might be involved during life’s passages any change, my choice in serving my God in his work has been accompanied with the admonition to not be weary in well doing and to wear out my life.

As with all my choosing of ‘whom’ and ‘how’ I will serve I need to be constantly on guard against doing His work to be seen of men or to be seen of Him in secret.

Choose ye this day whom ye will serve

Whether we presently have deluded ourselves into thinking we have not chosen any ‘whom’ or any ‘how’ to serve, our choices in life will in the end never be whether we choose someone or something to serve, but ‘whom’ and ‘how’ we choose to serve.

Let us never forget that when we make an honest evaluation of ‘whom’ and ‘how’ we serve we will be gaining a clearer picture of who we are becoming.

May the Lord bless us to understand the importance of our daily choices of ‘whom’ and ‘how’ we serve and not take lightly the multiple daily choices we make of ‘whom’ and ‘how’ we serve and be made abundantly aware of the consequences of those decisions.