This seems like an odd topic don’t you think. Some of you (or maybe many of you) who have read my jlog (Jim’s blog) might be saying this about the titles I have chosen. Stick around and hopefully I will enlighten you as to what I mean.

Yesterday I was writing about my mother being a true encourager to others in the midst of dealing with some pretty heavy issues of her own.  In the midst of our conversations during the 4 days that I was with her, she said something to me that caused me to think a lot about her statement.  Her statement frankly caught me off-guard and I initially fought back with a challenge until I more fully understood what she was saying.

We were talking about her rehab after dislocating her partial hip replacement the week prior and she said, “I don’t have a choice Jim.” (Referring to whether or not to go forward with the rehab).  I told  her that she always has a choice and she continued to say that she had no choice.

After thinking about what she was saying I totally understand what she was saying.  She made a decision to rehab her hip and once she made that decision her focus was on going forward and doing the best she could do to get back to walking her 2+ miles per day. There was no option to quit. It makes sense to me now.  During the day she wanted to walk more than the physical therapists wanted her to walk because she wanted to walk to get well and was always ready to walk more.  There was only one choice and that was moving forward with the rehab.  The choices she did have is how active she would be in plugging into the rehab.

This reminds me of what Samuel said in the Old Testament. “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires. . . .” 2 Samuel‬ ‭14:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬. Once we make a choice today, we can never go back.  Our choices, our lives are like water that is spilled out that can never be gathered up again. Our only option involves the present and what choices about our present situation.

On this journey the focus is always present and forward with no looking back and wishing otherwise.  Living in the present and placing our  foot in the future keeps us from having regrets.  So choose wisely.