Luke 18: 18-23

Liz Dumain

'Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: "Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?". "Why do you call me good?" Jesus asked him. "Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: 'You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honour your father and mother."

The man replied, "I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young." When Jesus heard his answer, he said, "There is still one thing you haven't done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich."'

This was a pretty clear choice! The young man felt that he was 'doing it right' and yet he had a sense that there was more - and so Jesus offers him what feels like a very stark choice. Which cuts right to the heart of who he is and where his question came from - intriguingly we'll never know what the young man actually did as a result of this choice.

Sometimes it can feel like God waves opportunities, options and choices across our path at the most inopportune times and when we least expect them - sometimes it can feel like we are being given choices without clear direction or any indication of God's preferred way forward, where any number of choices could be equally 'Godly' and although we cry to God for guidance and direction, sometimes heaven seems silent.

I wonder if in these moments, it's less about the rights or wrongs of the choice, and more about the way we go about the choosing. Whether we're seeking obedience or selfish ambition - whether we're sincerely seeking to follow rather than grab the glory for ourselves.

Every single day we are faced with a myriad of choices: to love or turn away, to forgive or resent, to store up or release, to be generous with our grace or let ourselves be eaten up by revenge or ill thought.

I wonder if God's desire for the end result of our choosing sometimes is not 'right' or 'wrong', but 'surrendered' or 'self'. Maybe if the rich young ruler had had a different heart attitude then what was being asked of him would have had a very different outcome? Maybe sometimes God is calling us to worry less about whether our choices are 'the right thing' and more about where our heart is....