Free will... beautiful yet frustrating.

Free will.  It's beautiful yet frustrating.  You know that person that keeps making all the wrong decisions and you just want to shake them and yell, "How do you not have this figured out yet?!"  Frustrating isn't it?  

How can you knowingly make a decision that results in you falling down in the dirt.... on your hands and knees... again... and every time you start to get back up, you make yet another decision that pushes you right back down in the dirt.  This time flat on your face with a big ol' mouthful of dirt.  You're tired.  You're irritated.  You're dirty.  You're angry that you are going nowhere but down.  Down in the dirt.

You're fed up.  You begin to resent people.  Everyone is to blame.  They're the reason you're being pushed around.  No one can be trusted.  Everyone is your enemy.  Everyone is out to hurt you.  

Well... part of that is true for certain miserable people in this world.  But we have been given a gift.  We can choose.  We can choose many things.

We can choose what people we want to be surrounded by.  The negative Nancys, the mean Marks, the joyful Jacobs, the encouraging Elizabeths.

We can choose to be content and be thankful for what we have.  Or we can choose to complain and be discontent.  You'll get a big mouthful of dirt on that one.

We can choose to surrender our lives and let God work.  Or we can hold onto our pride and refuse to understand His truths.  You'll be flat on the ground for good on this one.

I am so thankful that the Lord chose to give us free will.  Free will enables us to choose to accept His free gift of eternal life.  He's not standing above us with an iron fist forcing and manipulating us to love Him.  
No, that is not the God we serve.  He loves us so much that He gave us the most unbelievable gift imaginable.  The verse we know and love says it all,
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have eternal life."

Yet, some refuse this gift.  The most precious gift on earth, the one gift that is free yet came at the ultimate price... this gift, as beautiful as it is, is refused by so many.  Frustrating isn't it?

Why are you making the same mistakes?  Why are you continuing to hold on to your anger?  Why do you choose to wallow in discontentment?  Why do you choose to look out for only yourself and blame others?  Aren't you sick of choosing these things and ending up in the dirt again?
It's your choice.  But if I have a gift in front me that offers peace, joy, truth, understanding, and eternal life with the one true God versus living life on my own, falling in the dirt over and over, feeling anger, bitterness, loneliness... I know exactly what I'm going to choose.

Do I fall in the dirt now even as a follower of Christ?  Absolutely.  But here's a secret.... **Whisper** God is there to pick me up, wipe the dirt off my face, and say, "It's ok... let's try this again."  And I continue with the Lord.

Free will... beautiful yet frustrating.  What will you choose?