Choice calls for taking action. Once I decide that I am to lay aside unhelpful patterns of living in favor of conduct and speech that radiates God’s life in Christ, I must take some kind of action. I come to terms that I cannot continue on in spectator mode.
Thinking has an important part to play in the journey of taking up a better kind of living. But mental pondering alone over the idea of a shift from my present state toward a better way, fails to move me even a centimeter in that new direction.
A fork has appeared in the road ahead and I know I must shift direction. Taking “the road less travelled,” I engage the will. No, willpower alone lacks what it takes to bring about spiritual transformation. But, the long journey of change into Christlikeness will never occur apart from my will – and my repeated actions of choice stemming from it. Jesus supplies his powerful presence but he resists seizing the steering wheel of my destiny. He offers his presence and his power right along with his offer of partnering with me in the transforming adventure. I engage. I yield. I shift my posture, setting my feet in motion alongside his welcoming presence.
When the financial crisis of 2008 descended on the United States, several industries were broadsided. Among the ones profoundly impacted by the economic earthquake was the oil industry. Several of our international friends who had been majoring in Petroleum Engineering at our city’s university, were swept into an academic crisis. Career-altering decisions were made within a matter of days.
Almost overnight graduate students at the PhD and Masters levels found themselves redirecting their attention to very new fields of research. Fresh learning curves met them at every turn, sharp and steep!
While these scholars were endowed with exceptionally keen minds, to shift from the petroleum to the mechanical or the electrical specialty, demanded of them not only a new focus but a new set of disciplines. The students could not make the daunting change by merely wishing, or even thinking, it into being. Learning of and then entering into a new set of practices must be embraced.
In similar manner, when a Christian proceeds beyond something called their profession of faith and embraces apprenticing to Jesus (becoming a disciple), they have embarked upon a life-altering trajectory. Profession of faith becomes Practice of the faith. Humbly, decidedly, now advancing into the with-God life.
– ©2025 Jerry Lout Writer/Speaker Jerry Lout grew up in Okmulgee County. Jerry’s “Living with a Limp” and “Giants in the Rough” are available through Amazon. Current projects include “Inside-Out” and “Thresholds” – a string of narratives highlighting surprises, sorrows and adventure in the post-Africa years. Jerry welcomes reader comments at jerrylout@gmail.com and 918-857-4373.
