We have a friend who works with a crew of men.  When lunch time comes, they sit down together and open their lunch boxes.  One of the men has a habit of complaining about his lunch.   He will observe that it is not what he was hungry for that day, or that he doesn’t particularly like that type of sandwich.  He may complain that the chips are not fresh or that he would rather have had a piece of cake instead of pie.  He just never seems to be happy with his lunch. 

     One day, our friend finally got tired of this routine of complaining so he made a suggestion.  “If you don’t like your lunches, why don’t you ask your wife to pack something else?” 

     The man looked at him strangely, “I’m not married.  I pack my own lunch.” 

     As our friend reflected about this situation, he began to realize that many times we make choices in the present that affect our lives in the future.  Perhaps the man just wanted a quick and easy task so he made the easy sandwich and it wasn’t a good choice the next day when he was really hungry.  How often do we take the easy way out, then gripe and complain when we suffer the consequences?  How many times has God tried to lead us around the rough spots, but we insist on our own way and then we wonder why God has brought this difficulty upon us.  People often say, “Why would a loving God let bad things happen to people?”  Surely, they are just the obvious results of our own choices.