The Choice Box Every choice we make creates us. The small choices in our lives are the rungs of the ladder of the high diving board from which big choices make their grand leap. The righteous gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust did not rise to their exalted level on the dark night when they heard a tremulous knock and opened their door to find a frightened Jewish family seeking refuge. The greatness of these heroes was formed gradually over the years — every time they were riding on a bus and got up to give their seat to an elderly or infirm person. By such repeated small choices to relinquish their own comfort for the sake of a needy person, they made themselves into the people who, when faced with the trembling Jewish family at the door, would say, “Come in. Yes, I’ll hide you.” Every day each of us is faced with seemingly small choices: To yell at an errant employee (or child) or to wait until you calm down. To put your change in the tzedaka box by the cashier or to pocket it. To tell that juicy piece of gossip by the water cooler or to keep silent. To call back the person you told, “I’ll call you back,” or to run off because you’re late for the gym. Whether or not to say, “thank you” to the driver as you exit the cab or bus. Whether or not to let in a car inching in from a side street. Whether or not to pick up and dispose of a piece of litter on the street even though you didn’t drop it. According to Judaism, God controls everything in the universe except our moral choices. “Free will” refers to that area beyond heredity and environment where you can go either way. Whenever you feel an inner push-pull (“I really should pick up that litter, but I don’t want to get my hands dirty.”), you are in the realm of your own free choice, known as your Choice Box. Everyone has an individual Choice Box. Some people would not anguish over whether or not to lend $500 to an out-of-work friend. If you would never consider doing it, it’s above your Choice Box. If you would do it as a matter of course, with no hesitation, it’s below your Choice Box. If you would struggle with, “He really needs the money to pay his rent, but chances are he won’t be able to pay me back, and there goes my pool membership for the next season,” then you are within your Choice Box. Your Choice Box is like an elevator. The button you press will determine whether you go up or down. The decision you make about whether to lend your friend the $500 or keep it for your pool membership will either catapult you to a new level of generosity or fling you down into a new level of self-absorption. Every choice we make creates us. Small choices are significant because if you never put your change in the tzedaka box and you throw out every charity appeal that comes in the mail, then lending your friend $500 for his rent will never even enter your Choice Box. Whatever we do, God shadows our actions, as the psalmist says, “God is my shadow on my right hand.” By reporting the lost diamond before praying to God, Sean was in effect saying, “God sees me. God doesn’t want my prayers while I have this diamond in my possession.” Therefore, God responded by sending Sean the two unlikely sales totaling the amount of the diamond as God’s way of saying to Sean, “I see you.” God notices our small choices. Isn’t it time that we notice them too?
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 02:00:00 +0000
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