Choose You This Day
By Steve Bietz
Burke County
In 1974 we were introduced to a new way of advertising fast food burgers. Burger King launched a new ad campaign that included a ditty that belted out, “Have it your way, Have it your way, Have it your way at Burger King. Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Have it your way, Have it your way, Have it your way at Burger King.”
That little ditty was a game changer in the fast food business as other fast food chains had to scramble to allow the customer to have more options with flexible burger toppers. Before that little diddy, fast food chains did not include any customer customizing. The ‘Have It Your Way’ campaign has been the most successful advertising promotion Burger King has ever launched.
In most walks of life today, the customer demands flexible options. But what about the walk with God? Now I’m not suggesting that God does not give us options. The gift of free will is extremely important to our God. God did not establish a planet of robots but rather gave His human creation options.
I remember a girl who lived with her family a few houses down the street from where I grew up. We kids were all playing with our Christmas gifts that we had unwrapped. And this girl had gotten a doll and the doll had a string on the back of its neck. I must have been around 9 or 10 years old and because my folks had two sons, we did not have dolls in our home and I had never seen one with a string attached to its neck. When the girl pulled the string the doll talked! If I remember correctly the doll would repeat 4 or 5 statements. One statement was “I Love You.” The doll could be forced to say “I Love You” over and over again. God did not create us with strings on our necks. Instead, God created us with the freedom to choose. We can actually choose to have it our way instead of doing things God’s way.
As Joshua grew old he gathered the Israelites to give them his parting thoughts. We have these words of Joshua recorded in Joshua 24:15. “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
We get to choose whether or not we live our lives following the ways of God. I would like to go on record as saying I believe the smartest way we could ever choose to live is by living in accordance with the principles that we find in scripture. Not with a string attached to our necks so that God can just yank them out now and again to hear us say that we love Him. God cherishes our freedom to choose. I pray that you and I make the smart choice to love our God and to love His principles. The psalmist David would tell us in Psalm 119:97, “O how I love thy law.” And you know what…the psalmist David chose to say it without a string on his neck. Choose you this day.
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Steve Bietz is the pastor at Morganton Seventh Day Adventist Church. You can read more good Christian news from Pastor Steve Bietz HERE.
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Blue Ridge Christian News covers Burke County, McDowell County, Mitchell County, Yancey County, Madison County, in North Carolina, and Christian news from around the country.
