Making the Right Choice

Life is about choices.

Choosing what to eat, what to wear and what to do are daily tasks in life.  As one grows older, there are the choices of school, career and life partner.  Come 7 May 2011, the Swallow, along with her fellow Singaporeans, will need to choose whom they wish to give their support to for the next five years.

Choices are usually non-essentials...choosing to eat fish instead of chicken, or choosing to wear blue instead of black, or reading a book instead of watching the television.  In fact, one can even have the best of both...eat fish and chicken, or wear blue and black, or read a book when the advertisements are being shown on television.

There are times, however, when the choices made could mean the giving up of something for another (which may not necessarily be the better choice).  In such situations, fear of not making the right choice becomes real.  There is an unknown factor because one would not know whether the thing he gave up would actually have been a better choice.

What is one to do then?  Refrain from choosing?  Allow others to dictate one's choices?

The answers boil down to a very basic choice that affects all other choices...

Joshua 24 : 15b (NKJV)
...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...

Joshua 24 : 15e (NKJV)
But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

When the Swallow was in the final year of secondary school, she made a choice to serve her Lord God - to follow His call wherever He would lead her.  She did not anticipate what a major impact that choice would have on her life.  She did not realise that it would mean the giving up of close family and friends.

When the time came to join the working force, no doors were opened for her in Malaysia.  Applications for employment were either rejected or ignored.  "Lord, what should I do?  Where should I go?" was a constant cry to her Lord.  His answer came through wise counsel from her dad.  "Why not consider Singapore?  It's just a train ride away."

Making the choice of taking up employment in Singapore was not easy.  There were days of anxiety and sleeplessness.  Days of fearing the unknown.  When she finally decided, with the Lord's peace in her heart, it was with the thought that the leaving would only be a temporal one.  "Just three years.  I'll be back before you know it." was the answer she gave to family and friends before she left.  However, the Lord's plans were not her plans.  Gradually, during the three years, the Lord taught her to put her reliance on Him, to look to Him for comfort in times of loneliness.  He gently taught her that He alone would provide for her daily needs and necessities.  Through His Word, He reminded her daily that her trust must be in Him and Him alone.

Looking back, the Lord was in control at all times.  He knew the fears the Swallow had.  He lead her, slowly, step by step, to trust in Him.  Days of despair often followed days of trust.  But the Lord was steadfast.  His love for her never failed.  He helped her to shift her former dependence on her parents to a full dependence on Him.  Now, as she makes her choice on polling day, it is no longer with fear of the unknown.  He has shown Himself as the Sovereign One, the One who knows and holds the future.  Whatever choice she makes, He already knows the outcome.  He will see her and her family through the days ahead.  How wonderful it is to serve a God whom one can trust!