January 6, But it is also a supreme burden

The people who are selected are, in a sense, unfairly selected for a supreme honour; but it is also a supreme burden. The People of Israel come to realize that it is their woes which are saving the world.
-C.S. Lewis

We aren't alike really. I can only ever be me and you can only ever be you. The path that God has placed before us is ours alone. Your path is as unique and special as you are but we get to choose whether or not we will walk the length of it (praise the lord for sign posts, eh). I often imagine though if you abandon your path, not the easiest road, not the most intriguing, but almost certainly the most difficult road, God won't stop the work He's doing. No way. I imagine He will pick a lesser person, someone who thinks very little of themselves to fulfill His plan, a plan you decided not to bother with. I don't think you'll necessarily not make it to your intended destination, that's the funny thing about free will, we get to choose detours and mess with the Lord's plan but He'll likely still let us make it home thanks to Jesus alone. Only we might not have done all that He'd hoped for us here.

What if Saul hadn't converted? Would we not have had the bulk of the New Testament? I think rather we'd have had the bulk of the New Testament written slightly different by someone with another name. What if Moses had said no... well, he kind of did. God was pretty secure in his choice for that journey. Would we not have had the 10 commandments and the parting of the red sea and the freeing of Israel? No. Aaron probably would have led them home and we would have never heard the story of the baby in the bulrushes. We would have heard Aaron's story instead. But thank the Lord that Saul/ Paul followed the path that God laid out before him. Thank the Lord that Moses finally agreed. Thank the Lord for His plan for your life (yes I'm preaching to myself right now) and Go! Stop and stare at the sign posts and then keep on following them home. The journey along the way is, I dare say, almost as important as the destination. I'd rather not make it home and have our Father say, "why didn't you stick to my plan? it was the perfect one, you know, even if it appeared the most difficult." Yikes.

We, with our modern democratic and arithmetical presuppositions would so have liked and expected all men to start equal in their search for God. One has the picture of great centripetal road coming from all directions, with well-disposed people, all meaning the same thing, and getting closer and closer together. How shockingly opposite to that is the Christian story! One people picked out of the whole earth; that people purged an proved again and again. Some are lost in the desert before they reach Palestine; some stay in Babylon; some becoming indifferent. The whole thing narrows and narrows, until at last it comes down to a little point, small as the point of a spear - a Jewish girl at her prayers. That is what the whole of human nature has narrowed down to before the Incarnation takes place. Very unlike what we expected, but, of course, not in the least unlike what seems, in general, as shown by Nature, to be God's way of working.... The people who are selected are, in a sense, unfairly selected for a supreme honour; but it is also a supreme burden. The People of Israel come to realize that it is their woes which are saving the world.
-C.S. Lewis
The Business of Heaven