Choose Christward

“Every time you make a choice,” C. S. Lewis writes, “you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.”

And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either in a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself … Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other. (Mere Christianity, 81)

Lewis reminds us that every choice we make is consequential. Everything we do or don’t do, however small it might be, is moving us somewhere. 

Every time we look at our phones, every time we look the other way from those in need, every time we choose what we want in the immediate over what we want most — every choice we make is changing us. 

And my exhortation this morning is, Christian, always choose Christward. Let every choice you make be one that moves you closer to God and closer to home. 

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins.

Prayer of Confession

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and in regard to ourselves there is no health in us. We are sinful by nature and we are sinful by our choices, which makes us wholly desperate for your mercy. It’s in your mercy now that we seek your mercy as we confess our sins to you in this moment of silence …