Matthew 7:13-14
I'm a big baseball fan and one of my favorite characters is Yogi Berra, the legendary former catcher for the New York Yankees.
Yogi is as famous for his use of words as he was for his use of a bat and glove. He was a slashing hitter who has slashed up the English language more than once. One of the great "Yogisms" is this piece of timeless advice: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
There is actually a solid truth behind that puzzling piece of wisdom from old Yogi. When we come to a fork in the road of life, we have to go one way or the other. We can't just stand there scratching our heads forever, turn back and pretend the choice doesn't exist, or sit down and wait for someone else to come along and make the choice for us.
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The reality is that we are constantly facing forks in the road of our lives — and the road we take at these decisive moments will help to shape our lives, the lives of our family, and ultimately even the future of civilization. It's that important that we learn to recognize the true nature of the choices before us, and then make the right choice. This is the first step toward a life of integrity.
Men today are asked to wear many hats and fill many roles. I am convinced that more men and boys are confused today as to what a man is supposed to be and do than at any time in our history. That's why I want to encourage you to make maximum, nothing-held-back commitment to Jesus Christ the top priority in your life. When you and I are sold out to Him, we can live with the kind of integrity it will take to be a man of God in the twenty-first century.
A life of integrity is forged out of the choices we make every day, whether as fathers and husbands or in the workplace. A lot of dads and husbands have abdicated their roles as men of God who are called to lead their churches and their families in God-honoring ways. As the culture around us continues to deteriorate morally, and as the secular world continues to try and push the church into a little "religious corner," out of sight and out of mind, Christian men are standing at a critical fork or point of decision today, with two roads before them.
One of these roads is broad, well-paved, and easy to follow, with plenty of room for one more traveler. The other road is narrow and looks confining. The broad road is filled with people inviting us to join them, while there are few on the narrow road. This is the way Jesus described life's choices (Matt. 7:13-14). Of course, the foundational choice is our decision to trust and follow Him as Savior and Lord. But life-shaping decisions do not end with our salvation. In fact, for most men this is when some really hard decisions begin because now they have a brand-new orientation and mindset. But whatever the case, we have to make life-shaping decisions all the time.