1 Kings 18:21

Lame Minds

How long halt ye between two opinions? 1 Kings 18:21.

I expect most of you when you were very small, oh, a long time ago, played a game called “Oranges or Lemons.” You know how two people make an arch with their hands and everyone else passes under the arch until one is caught and asked in a whisper whether he would like to be an “orange” or a “lemon.” If he says “orange” he is sent to one side, and if he says “lemon” he is sent to the other. And so the game goes on until everybody has been caught, and then comes a grand tug of war between the “oranges” and the “lemons.”

Now suppose some boy or girl thought they would like to be half an “orange” and half a “lemon”; and suppose they stood in the middle and pulled one side with the right hand, and the other with the left; wouldn't you think they were rather silly? They wouldn't be doing any good to anybody else, and they wouldn't be doing any good to themselves.

And yet there are lots of boys and girls, and men and women too, who are just like that. They can't make up their mind what they will do, or which side they will choose. Sometimes they think they would like one thing, and the next moment they fancy they would like another. They are the people with lame minds.

These people never make very much progress. They are always hobbling from one foot to the other, so of course they don't get along very fast. They are like the Chinaman who was seen standing at the roadside hacking a piece of log, but never striking it twice in the same place. A passer-by asked him what he was making, and he replied, “Oh, don't know: maybe idol, maybe bedstead!”

Now I want you to consider some of the things we have to decide about.

1. And the first are the little things of everyday life. When you have money to spend make up your mind what you are going to purchase with it. Of course half the joy is in planning all the things it might buy, and I don't mean you should deprive yourself of that pleasure. But when you have gone into the shop and fixed on something, don't change your mind after the girl has wrapped up your purchase in brown paper and tied a string round it. And if you have to choose between going for a cycle run or playing a game, make up your mind about it and stick to your decision. If you train yourself to be decided about little things now, you won't have so much trouble about the big things later on.

2. Now let us think about some of those bigger things about which we have to decide.

Most of us have to decide sooner or later what we are going to be. Of course when we are quite small we change our minds about that very often. One day we think we shall be an engine-driver, and the next a plasterer, and the next a doctor, and the next a chimney-sweep. And that doesn't really matter much. But when we get into the top classes at school we have to begin to consider the thing seriously. I know a boy who tried five different trades before he finally settled down, and of course he never succeeded in any of them. So if you want to get on you must choose one thing and make up your mind you will stick to it and make a success of it.

3. But there is a bigger choice still than that of choosing a career, and it comes to us every day of our lives the choice between right and wrong. We have to learn to say “No,” and to say it quickly and decidedly; for if we hop about from one foot to the other we are almost sure to choose the wrong.

That boy is bound to reach the top,

His progress no rebuffs can stop,

Who makes his motto ON:

Who when besought to turn astray,

Just reads his motto backward way,

And turns his ON to NO:

This lad, though poor as some church mouse,

May some day dwell in his own house,

And drive his car also.

4. But the biggest thing of all that we have to determine is on whose side we are going to be on Christ's or Satan's. It is a question we can't get out of deciding, because if we are not on one side then we are on the other. Some people think they can be on neither side, or a little on each, or half-way between both. But that is quite a mistaken idea.

There was a warrior of old who painted God on one side of his shield and the devil on the other and added below, “I am ready for either.” He was trying to serve both, but it can't be done. If you are not on Christ's side, then you are against Him. Which side are you going to take?