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When I was growing up, we didn’t have an endless supply of chips and other junk food in our house like so many do today.  That does not mean that we ate a healthy diet that excluded sugar.  We ate sugar, but much of it was in the form of homemade pies, cakes, preservers, jellies, and sweet tea.  As I think about sweet tea, I am reminded of my grandmother’s tea—it was dark and syrupy sweet—nearly sweet enough to sop with a biscuit. If you happened to splash some on the floor it would surely leave a sticky spot.  And then along came the saccharine tablets!  I remember my mama carefully counting out those tablets that looked a lot like tiny aspirins to me.  She added them in to cut back on the amount of sugar she used.  I don’t think it had anything to do with making the tea healthier; instead, it was about not having to buy so much sugar.  I wonder how expensive a bag of sugar was during the early 60s?  My mother’s technique worked alright until we heard that those tiny white tablets might not be quite as innocent as we thought.

An event comes to mind when as a kid I had the rare opportunity to pick out a little bag of chips at the store.  I do not remember how it all came about or who was paying for what I chose, but among all those attractive little bags I could have one—and only one.  Just when I would be about to make my choice I would think about another flavor that might be better, so that would put me back to square one.  It was a tough decision, but also a win-win choice since any of them would have been a delightful treat.  But I had an urgency to carefully make my selection and I finally did.

A little country boy making a decision about a snack is important to him at the moment, but without a doubt there are choices to be made that are far more serious and have an eternal impact. 

As Jesus Christ was concluding His powerful discourse that we refer to as His Sermon on the Mount, He left his audience with some things that had to do with choices.  But He made it simpler than some of the other choices that we face in life—there were only two options to pick from, and each brought a different spiritual result.

One of the choices had to do with which road in life we decide to travel on; one leads to eternal goodness while the other takes the person to everlasting destruction.  In Matthew 7, Christ presented two powerful choices for each of us:  “Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Verses 13-14, New International Version).  What is that narrow road that we can choose and find never ending spiritual life?  It is Christ and the sacrificial provision He made for all humankind by going to the cross and dying for our sins.  In John 14:6 He gives a clear picture of that narrow way as He proclaimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  Christ’s way to eternal life is not one choice among many, but, as He clearly states, the one and only way.

Which choice will you make?  To follow the narrow road of faith or the broad road of sin?  To enjoy eternal life or endure eternal destruction?  You have two choices and you can only select one or the other.  Seems like a clear choice to me!