You will see, you will rejoice,
and you will flourish like grass . . .
Isaiah 66:14a HCSB
When I first read this verse, I read it as a blessing, as in “these things will happen to you.” And I think it is that, but then I saw another level at work. My choice. As in, “I WILL see, I WILL rejoice, and I WILL flourish like grass.” This is a further echo of John’s half-empty/half-full contemplation. And I find it utterly appropriate for a Monday.
These last months have been an absolute roller coaster for me: big highs, deep lows, and always more than I can handle. God always gives more than we can handle, and that’s perfect. He’s got everything handled; He’s just waiting for our response. Our choice. Will I kill myself trying to do it all? Will I get angry and bitter that it’s too much? Will I curl up in a ball of despair? Will I call up everyone I know and try to dump it on them, spreading my life around like a plague of words? Will I turn to God with all of it and say, “I love to watch you work in me, let’s boogie!”?
I’d like to say that my response is the last of those examples, but I generally fall into the following camp:
“But what do you think? A man had two sons.
He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go, work in the vineyard today.’
He answered, ‘I don’t want to!’
Yet later he changed his mind and went.”
Matt. 21:28-29 HCSB
Well, I have a more dramatic meltdown than that – a stage-worthy performance! – but that’s not the point. The point is I have a choice, and every day that I’m alive, my life turns on my God-given choice.
So today is Monday, and I want to bless everyone reading this with the reminder that you have a choice. Have a coworker assembled in the bowels of hell and sent by Satan himself to destroy your will to live? Maybe you’d like to let Jesus handle them. Have a To-Do list that the entire cast of Downton Abbey couldn’t accomplish? Maybe Wisdom would like to dazzle you today. Hearing a slithery voice telling you that this is as good as gets so you might as well give in? Maybe you tell the snake to shut his face and ask God what HE thinks of your life.
My life turns on my choice, and so does yours. I choose life, I choose love, I choose God! And today I get to see what the Son of God would like to accomplish through my ordinary vessel. Choose well, dear reader!
You will see, you will rejoice,
and you will flourish like grass . . .
Isaiah 66:14a HCSB
