Your Choices Matter
Sometimes it is easy to think, "My choices don't matter," or "The things I do don't matter. My life is just my own and it has no great impact on the world." We may even look at people like the pastor, the community leader, your boss, or even the president and say their choices matter, but mine don't.
The Fallacy of Singular Leadership
This is false. The success of anything in life, whether it be the family, the church, the business, or the nation, depends not necessarily on the choice of a single leader, but on the daily choices made by the individual. Let's look at a business, for example. You can have the best CEO, but if some of the low-level employees choose not to show up, it will impact the business.
You can be the greatest general in the world, but if your frontline soldiers refuse to fight, you have no strength. You can be the best spouse in the world, but if your spouse chooses the path of selfishness, the family will be damaged.
The Collective Moral Foundation
Life is never about the big choices, but the daily choices made by the individual. A successful society is dependent on the choices of all of its members. If the members of a society are greedy for money and neglect true self-development, the rot of corruption will soon begin to eat the society from the inside out. If the members of the society start choosing to believe there is no difference between a man and a woman and that homosexuality is okay, confusion will soon take over the whole society.
Sexual promiscuity erodes trust and breaks people down emotionally, which then leads to greater problems in marriage. Problems in marriage might lead you to get a divorce. Your divorce not only impacts you, your children, and those around you; it impacts society as a whole, for it shifts people's perception of marriage, and as we know, marriage is the foundation of society. For a marriage is akin to a small nation-state. The breakdown of marriage is a small dose of national breakdown. A nation is a marriage of people through a social contract. Your individual choice of how you treat marriage has a national impact. Choose wisely, deal wisely with your spouse. Your success and failure in marriage have a great impact.
The Interdependence of the Whole
A machine depends on the sum of its parts. As long as each part is working correctly, then the machine is working correctly; but as soon as a different part, or what appears to be the most insignificant part, starts to malfunction, then the machine will start to breakdown.
Each member is integral to the success of the whole. An army at war is not solely depending on the general who directs combat, but on the cook who prepares the food, the mechanic who fixes the vehicles, the clerk who processes the material, and the phone operator who passes the message. Each has a crucial part to play in the success or failure of the army. A missed message could define the success or failure of a battle.
To build a society, one doesn't simply need a great leader, a great cabinet, etc., but the construction worker who will work on infrastructure, the teacher who will raise the future generation, the policeman who keeps the peace in the streets, etc. The choice of each member is crucial to the success or failure of it. A revolution may start with one member of the society, high or low, stating his or her discontent, then that discontent goes from member to member until it becomes a flood that overwhelms the system.
Empowering the Individual
The truth is, no one man is truly as powerful as the least member that upholds him. If you want to build a successful family, church, business, or nation, focus on the development of the least individual. Teach them to make healthy choices, wise choices. If the individual is making healthy choices, then the society and the business become healthy.
Imagine having a business where one of your employees gets involved in a scandal of some sort; his personal choice will impact the function of the business.
A powerful nation is not powerful because of its army only. It is powerful because of its industry, its educational system, its virtues, and the people's belief in its cause. A powerful country is dependent upon the poor as much as the rich. For it is usually the poor who make up its armies, work in its factories, maintain its infrastructure, etc. While the rich may provide the financial capital, the poor do the labor, and as such, the poor are as important as the rich.
A church is not successful because it has a brilliant orator as a pastor. The whole contributes to its success: the deacon maintaining cleanliness and order, the usher with the smile welcoming the people, the treasurer who faithfully stewards its money, the youth working the technology, and the member seeking to live an upright life. If the usher had a bad day and was mean to one person, that one act may eventually lead to a damaged reputation and destroy the church. One member living in sin will, by his or her influence, corrupt the whole.
The act of one soldier can define a battle. A soldier who no longer believes in the cause can open the gate to the enemy, reveal secrets, etc. One traitor in the ranks can destroy the whole. The individual and his daily choices are what contribute to the success or failure of any group or enterprise.
Conclusion
Your choices matter. The choices you make on a daily basis are determining whether your family, your job, church, Bible study group, society, or the nation gets stronger or weaker.
The idea that my choices are unimportant and only the choices of powerful people in powerful positions matter is simply false. As a matter of fact, many times so-called "powerful" people make choices to appeal to the popular will, and what is the popular will but the individual choices of the majority?
Your choices matter. Every single one. Whether you choose to read the Bible or watch some foolishness, whether you go to school or not, whether you treat someone kindly or not, it all matters. The person you treated kindly may develop a better view of people and repeat the same. The person you mistreated one day may develop an evil outlook on humanity or your people group and spread evil.
Your choices matter; seek to make wise ones.
Always remember that national sin is the result of accumulated individual sins. When God judges a nation, He is not judging them, He is judging us. Make right choices that please God on daily
