Choices Made

I recently witnessed a conversation between one of my fellow supervisors and his employee.  The employee was being held accountable, with discipline, for not adhering to a very inflexible rule. The rule broken is a very common rule and the employee had been trained properly not to break it. Additionally, he had been been warned about it only minutes prior and he chose to break it anyway.


As my partner explained how we discovered the rule was broken and the level of discipline that would be involved, the employee went into a defense mode. However, there was no way he could claim ignorance, So his defense was that everyday he does our company a favor by working hard and getting his job done, that, “the company and the Country were screwed up for forcing him to come work and follow a rule he didn’t agree with.” He also said that he should get some flex on the discipline because he was such a good employee and if he didn’t, he "wouldn’t be doing you guys (the Company) any favors anymore."

After that statement had been made, my partner calmly looked his employee in the eye and said, “Did I wake you up this morning? Did I put your clothes on you this morning? Did I drive you to work? No, you made your choice to do all those things. Everything you did today involved a choice you had to make. Whatever your motives were, you chose to come to work, knowing full well the job came with rules you had to follow.  Being here is not a favor to me, working hard is not a favor to me, getting your job done is not a favor to me. It’s a choice you make. So you need to remember you live by the choices you make and any time you make the wrong choice, you are the one who ultimately has to answer for them.”

I couldn’t help that while I listened  to my partner make this statement, I was thinking, , “How true is that? If I eat junk food, it’s not the food's fault I get fat. Everyday I get in a car, I know there is a chance I could get in an accident... it’s not the car's fault, etc… Then I thought, “Wow! How true that is to my own spiritual walk. God laid out the rules. He has never forced me to follow them, but I do know that there is accountability if I don’t. So, should I blame God for the choice I make?”

Everyday I have to make choices, as we all do.  A lot of times, the right choice is more difficult, but we know by our moral motives, which ones we should make. My favorite poem has always been. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

John 12:26 "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Good day and good choices.