Here’s a thought to toss around in your mind - Having choices makes life complicated.

Try this simple experiment. Go into your local supermarket with £1.50, to buy a simple box of breakfast and here’s your immediate dilemma :

Is it to be oats, corn, bran or nuts?

Is it to be the newest brands? - or stick by the trusted old favourites?

Will your family eat the Swiss muesli?- and so it goes on.

For breakfast cereal, soup, jeans, washing machines, cars, computers and houses. What to eat. What to own. What to drive. Where to live. Choice.

We have it in abundance.

So I got thinking recently whether having so much choice is really the great thing it’s cracked up to be. Let me tell you what happened. It all started when somebody passed to me a simple comment which went something like this:

This brother was in a poor part of Europe when one of the locals said to him “I feel sorry for you. You spend so much time making choices that life must get very complicated. When we go to the shops here we don’t have a choice. We buy the one brand that’s there. No point worrying about it. It’s all there is.”

Do you know, the more I’ve thought about that the more I’ve appreciated it. When we have to buy a car we look around us. We weigh up various factors, including the cost, the colour, the wheel trims. Is it available cheaper somewhere else? What price do I get for my trade-in? Should I take a bank loan or take finance? - Difficult isn’t it?

And when we finally make the choice we’re not finished yet because then we wonder if we did the right thing after all. And there’s always some encouraging soul around to tell you that you’ve definitely made a mistake!

They knew somebody who knew somebody who had one of those cars and it gave nothing but trouble etc. etc.

No, I’m not sure of this now - Choice is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

Look at the huge growth in recent years in the number of television channels. This is defended on the basis that it gives the consumer greater ‘choice’. But our society is not one bit better off. All we have are even more channels offering their tasteless diet of blasphemy, immorality, swearing and tacky, banal game shows .

So what does God have to say about it?

Check out this powerful challenge which God put to the people in Joshua 24.: “ If you are unwilling to serve the Lord then choose today whom you will serve”

Make your choice he says. But remember that the wrong choice can be a curse to you and there is only one real choice which will bring blessing to your soul and your family:

“As for me and my family” said Joshua “ We will serve the Lord” - Yes that was a good choice.

So commit yourself to that way and the curse of choice will be transformed into a blessed choice for you.