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Every person makes choices daily, and each of our choices has a consequence.

– Liesel Krause-Wiid

Think a little and marvel that God has given you the privilege of being able to choose.

– Johan Jacobs

Do the following statements sound familiar?

• “I can’t believe it’s happening to me again!”

• “Now that’s Murphy’s Law.”

• “I’m always in the right place at the wrong time.”

• “Things just don’t want to work out for me. I can’t understand why!”

• “Life is playing tricks on me again.”

Most of us sometimes wonder why particular things happen to us, or we feel that life is treating us unfairly. Sometimes a normally cheerful, lively, positive person feels as though he or she has to drag him or herself out of bed in the morning and cannot face a new day. They feel they have just enough energy for survival. They might previously have been able to transform apparently negative situations into positive ones, and it hadn’t been too difficult since nothing dramatic had ever disturbed the normal flow of their lives. Nothing had really upset their applecart yet. But then, one day, the whole street is covered in rotten apples. Before, their scales had more or less balanced. Now the weights have tilted to one side. And the thing they were weighing has fallen out the other side. They have totally lost control.

It is at such times that Christians sometimes want to ask God why He allowed this unpleasant thing to happen in their lives, since they were under the impression that they were living according to His will. Dear reader, sometimes it isn’t that God allowed it. By having made a wrong choice, we got ourselves into that unpleasant situation. Debbie (Bingham) Nicholson writes in her story as follows: “Selfcentred choices come along, hard lessons and huge consequences to bear” But she also writes that redemption is possible even if wrong choices were made initially.

Liesel Krause-Wiid writes as follows: “And yes, we often choose wrongly, but the wonder of the almighty God we worship is that though we make wrong choices, God is still there for us and can use even our wrong choices to serve his purposes.”

I invited 22 people from different sections of society to share with us the choices they made at a certain stage of their life. Although they represent a diversity of spheres, they all made one choice that has had a common factor, namely to hand over the control of their lives to Christ. We read in these surprisingly honest accounts how things aren’t always rosy on their Christian journey. A car accident can compel you to change direction. Sometimes we read that we have no control over certain situations and that we have to trust God for strength to survive each day. A background of wrong choices, such as prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism, can be wonderfully turned around into a life of service to God. And sometimes things like cancer, an unloving mother or child abuse can be transformed through forgiveness into a life that is pleasing to God. Some people are so fortunate that all their life choices thus far have resulted in only good things. The honour is then given to God alone. So read for yourself how these contributors have recounted their experiences, each in their own words.

My sincere appreciation to each contributor for the time they invested in this project. My prayer is that each of you will be richly blessed in future for your participation. I believe with all my heart that you will touch heartstrings and draw people to reflect on their own lives.

Helana Olivier