The Freedom to Choose can be Expensive

Once I won a three-day vacation to a Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida. During that trip, my wife & I decided to go out onto the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat. 

During that ride, we couldn’t escape the hot summer sun beating down on our heads as we were being tossed by the waves. 

After it was all over, my wife and I didn’t feel too well, so we spent that entire afternoon in our hotel room just trying to recover.

Some of us mentally have been lost at sea for a very long time. If your thoughts are constantly on your circumstances, then you’re lost at sea and are probably just hanging on. 

Constantly dwelling on circumstances is as uncertain as trying to get a fix on the wind. 

If you’re going to escape, you’ve got to get your mind off your situation, and chart your course to dry land. Let me show you how.

Each of us has been given a rudder for our lives. It’s called our will. You have the ability to choose your thoughts. Then, your thoughts determine your behavior. 

Finally, your behavior determines your destination. For a ship to turn, someone has got to take the steering wheel and by the force of their will exert change. 

In other words, you have to decide to redirect your thoughts, words, and actions contrary to your current predicament.

For example if I’m reading the Bible, I’ll take a yellow marker and highlight the ideas that I would like to apply. 

Then, I’ll personalize those ideas, and memorize them by speaking them out loud daily while I drive, shave, wait, etc. 

I liken speaking Bible verses emphatically out loud as a way of underlining them into my subconscious mind. 

I consider these words to be the fuel that powers the engine of my heart. Once they become reality in my heart this generates the power for change.

Let’s look at this in another way. I own a pretty smart Shetland Sheep dog named Shadow, but she’s got a mind of her own.

She’s so smart that my family has to spell certain words in front of her, or she’ll get all excited. 

Words like s-n-a-c-k or b-e-d-t-i-m-e. Each morning I let her outside to potty. Usually she’ll start jumping, barking, and running after anything that moves.

She’s so loud that sometimes I’ll have to quickly get her in, or she might wake up the neighbors.

When she gets louder and louder, I’ll peak my head out of the back door, and emphatically say, “Come”. If she still doesn’t come, I’ll walk out to her and face her. If I do this, she’ll know that I mean business. 

Then, she’ll head for the door. When she does what I tell her to do, I’ll generously praise her and thank her for obeying me. I’m exerting my will against her will to gain her obedience. I refuse to let her have her way.

Chart your new course by using God’s Word, and what you choose to be. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you don’t even have a choice. 

You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of what you choose or refuse to choose. What exactly do you want out of life? Find in God’s Word what your destination will be and refuse to be deterred.


“Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you”. Moses, Lawgiver. Deuteronomy 6:6 (MSG)

M. H. Dennis