“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land your dwell. But for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15, NKJV)
Most people know that this is the challenge of Joshua to the people of Israel, who had conquered, and were continuing to conquer the people of the land they had invaded in Canaan. We all have choices to make in life. Some are more important than others since the consequences can be great if you take one path instead of another. My father, Donald Rivette, had a choice to make in the Spring of 1944 that had great consequences.
At that time, he was a First Lieutenant and the Executive Officer of the Anti-tank Company, 26th Infantry Regiment, First Infantry Division and had spent the previous year in that unit fighting in North Africa against the German Africa Corps which had been defeated by the combined U.S and British Armies. He had also participated in the invasion of Sicily by those same allied forces and defeated the German Army defending that island. Now his division had been moved to England to prepare for the cross-channel invasion of France at Normandy.
His division was once again, as they had at Sicily, been selected to be one of the three divisions in the first wave on D-Day, with the First Division landing on Omaha beach. One day he got a message to report to the First Division intelligence section. There he met a French Officer who offered him a chance to parachute into France and help the French underground. The G-2 had looked at his files and seen that he had taken two years of French while at the U. of Michigan. He was told that he would be out of contact with his wife and family for six months and if he were captured the US would claim they didn’t know him. That was an easy decision. He said no thank you!
Prior to joining the First Division in North Africa he had volunteered for the Airborne and had trained at Fort Benning, GA with the 502nd Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. On his seventh jump there were very high winds, and he broke his leg. The Army decided that he shouldn’t jump out of airplanes anymore and when he had healed, they sent him to North Africa and the First Infantry Division. In London, he ran into one of his buddies from the 502nd Regiment in England and he said they would help get him back to the regiment and he could parachute into France with them!
He had three invitations to enter France on D-Day! All were dangerous options! Which would you have chosen? He chose to stay with his unit which he had been fighting with for the previous year and prayed that he had made the correct choice. It turned out that he did as the 502nd Infantry took heavy casualties on D-Day and in the weeks that followed, and his anti-tank company, which was scheduled to land on Omaha Beach at noon on D-Day kept having its time pushed back due to the heavy casualties of the first waves. They ended up landing on D plus one (the day after D-day) when the beach had been secured.
What do you do when you have a tough decision to make? Do you make a list of pros and cons? Do you think about which one will be more enjoyable or beneficial? Do you look to a parent, friend, mentor, coach, pastor, or other person you trust to give you advice and counsel? Do you flip a coin? In Psalm 18 the psalmist says:
“In my distress I called upon the LORD And cried to my God; He heard my voice from His Temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” (Psalm 18:6, NKJV)
There is no better choice except to cry out to the Lord when it comes to making a tough decision. He is the One who created you. He is the One that has a plan for your life and knows the way He wants you to go. Do you remember when the prophet Elijah was running away from Jezebel’s death threat after Elijah had killed all the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? (1 Kings 19:1-18) He had run away in fear, but the Lord was with him every step he took until he was exhausted and went into a cave where he cried out the Lord that he was alone against all the evil men of Israel, and he didn’t know what to do. God spoke to him there.
“Then He (God) said, ‘Go out, and stand on the mountain of the LORD,’ And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”(a delicate whispering voice) (1 Kings 19:11-12)
Just like God came to Elijah with a still small whispering voice so He will come to you and give you the guidance you need to make the difficult and even painful decisions in life. Get alone with Him in the quiet place. Cry out to Him and “cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
PRAY
1. Lord, I come to you with humility and thankfulness that You are always on duty waiting for Your children to come and spend time alone with you.
2. Thank you, that You love me with a love that I can never understand completely but I know that I can depend on Your love throughout this life and in the one to come. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35)
3. Help me never to forget that I need you every day in every situation and that I can depend on You for every decision.
