He narrowed his choices of vocations to two. He could go into the real estate business in Houston, Texas or the banking business in Boston. He chose the real estate business in Houston. This was just before the bottom dropped out of the real estate market in Houston. He lost everything.

He was a persevering lad, though. He hung in there till things got better. He was such a hard worker that he earned back what he had lost and more. Now he had cash again. He decided to get out of real estate. He had a new decision to make--invest in a new computer company with the funny name, APPLE, or invest in a savings and loan. He invested in the savings and loan. He lost all his money again.

This time he was so disconsolate, he decided to buy a plane ticket back home to Indiana. Two airlines had planes flying toward Indiana the next day, United and Eastern. He chose Eastern.

Reaching the airport the next morning he discovered that Eastern had gone bankrupt during the night and that his ticket was worthless. Frustrated now, he hitched a ride with a fellow piloting a little two-seater, single engine plane. About half-way back to Indiana they ran into a terrible storm. Fortunately there were two parachutes on the plane. Of course our friend chose the one that would not open.

Now he's falling through the air. Being a good Catholic the young man cries, "St. Francis, please save me." Suddenly a giant hand reaches out of the sky and grabs him by the wrist. There he is dangling in the air when he hears a gentle voice coming from the sky, "St. Francis Xavier or St. Francis of Assisi?"

Life is full of decisions. There was once a man who lived in Northampton, England, who would attend the Anglican Church one Sunday and the Methodist Church the next. The people of the Anglican Church invited him to join their church, and the Methodist people invited him to become a member of theirs, but he could never make up his mind. When he died, his wife wanted his body buried in the Anglican churchyard. Church officials didn't think this was quite right. If you visit this churchyard today, you will find his body buried so that half of it is inside the fence and half outside.

A lot of us would prefer to be fence straddlers. Decisions, however, must be made, and the most important one is to follow Jesus everyday.

Ron Newhouse