Like a Box of Chocolates

Life! Is it like a box of chocolates? When you never know what you are going to get?

Is that how life is for us? Uncertain about the future? Impossible situations? Constant struggles? Wars over addiction?

We know what we are going to get, when we choose right. We have all the tools in the world, all the guidance and an opportunity set before us to walk in the ways of the Word so we have abundant living.

If you see on the top of the box, there is a chart to describe each chocolate, an assortment to choose from and another layer underneath when you run out! That’s probably the best way to describe the choices set before us…

Blueprints
Assortments
Levels

That’s life! You’re not walking in blindly. It is mapped out. There’s a way that is good and the way that is off course.

There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12 (English Standard Version)

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:15 (New International Version)

Let’s take these chocolates as chapters in our lives. Initially we have little control over that, then choose, then back to surrendering it up. Sure we get surprises, unexpected turns and many disappointments, but when we keep to seeking God and wise counsel throughout our life, we should get this correct.

Many times God speaks to us. Through prayer, fasting, His Word, through sermons, through worship, songs, inspirational books, or other people. His guidance is seen through all of that. We should not be walking around blindly or playing “russian roulette.” As the choices of life are set before us–we scan through the description of each and not just factor in appearance.

Just like the box of chocolates, they all look amazing on the outside, but when you bit into some the taste will range from sweet to bitter. As we mature ourselves through time, teaching and practical truths, these things will become more obvious to us.

All that glitters isn’t gold.
Beauty can be toxic.

Things that are so readily available to us-would not always be the best choice. We have to wait in life. We have to put effort when we want the best things. Sometimes it is exhausting, but we gain our strength when we keep ourselves rooted and grounded in that Word. So we know.

Blueprints have been given so that we have an idea. Assortment of opportunity is before us to choose what will work best for our situation. And levels of where God will continue to elevate us as we continue down the best path.

Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly; For what can the man do who succeeds the king? Only what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all. So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, it also happens to me, and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.” For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!
Ecclesiastes 2:12-16 (New International Version

We all have the same choices presented to us. The difference is what we decide. Solomon had choices set before him. He even wished to do all that the fool would. He lived to experience both wise choices and foolish ones. We would do well to study these words. God gave him tremendous wisdom, more than any man. He did good things with it and he also did bad things with it.

Much like us, we always want to experiment. We live life to the fullest in our crazy thinking and crazy days…always coming back to the place where we discern that OUR way is the wrong way. Abundant living is not found in hundreds of wives and concubines like Solomon. It is not found in state of the art mansions and living in drinking festivals.

Abundant living is having peace that surpasses understanding. It is having joy that strengthens us. It is accepting that unconditional [agape] type of love has been poured out over us. It is having hope and faith… It is believing that all things are possible. It is having a wholesome life with our King and Savior. Nothing like that found in a perishable box of chocolates or through frivolous living.

The eternal life that He offers is greater than the corruptible and temporary things of life.

“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are ETERNAL.”
2 Corinthians 4:18 (New King James Version)