Choice - Stripped Down by Lepers

Reading:   2 Kings 7:3-20

The way is not always clearly marked but there are some choices that make themselves known by a default of end result.  If the options equal a similar situation to that of the status quo or one of a less desirable result, then the best option is that which affects humanity in the least obtrusive manner; however, if there is an option that might elevate the situation, no matter how minuscule the possibility, that choice is, and must be, the best option!

In this chapter the Samarians are suffering from an intense famine.  There is no food anywhere and the poor, diseased, and sickly, have few options...

2 KINGS 7:3-4

3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 

 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 

The lepers had three options:

1)   Stay and die (no one brought food into the gate as everyone was suffering)
2)   Go into the city and die (no food inside to beg for either)
3)   Approach the enemy (they will either be killed or shown mercy)

Option three was the absolute best.  Yes, the probability rested with the enemy most likely killing the men but at least their suffering would not be drawn out, "...we shall but die."  Spoken as if it were a foregone conclusion but a quicker, more merciful, end to their miserable condition.  There was no choice, they had to act as they did and, as luck would have it, the odds paid dividends - quite high dividends!  The Samarian army had been spooked and left all there tents, provisions, and jewels where they stood, unguarded.  The lepers became wealthy men and ultimately ended the famine within the city by proclaiming the desertion of the enemy...Elisha's prophecy fulfilled (see yesterday's blog).

There is a "choice" quote (pun intended) I like from Michael J. Fox,

I have no choice about whether or not I have Parkinson's. I have nothing but choices about how I react to it. In those choices, there's freedom to do a lot of things in areas that I wouldn't have otherwise found myself in.

There are always going to be new and exciting issues, events, roadblocks, and problems and, more often than not, there will be little you can do directly but there will always be freedom in how you react and how others perceive your reaction - and it trickles down from there!

~Kipling