Choices

The choices we make determine what kind of life we live. Granted, a lot can influence those choices (our past, our passions, our finances, etc.), but in the end, we still make a choice.

While we often make decisions based on ignorance or apathy, other times we know exactly what we are supposed to choose. The trick there, is whether we choose well or not. Though I could probably write for a while on this, I'm not particularly interested in talking about morality today.

What is jumping out to me is that so often we have the opportunity to make decisions, but we are completely unaware. For example, love. We choose to love. We don't necessarily feel love for someone, but we are told to walk in love.

What about forgiveness? We are told to forgive, and as such, we will be forgiven. Forgiving someone, like loving them, is a conscious action rather than a feeling. The feelings follow the decision.

Love and forgiveness are things I've heard taught regularly at church. Scripturally it is pretty clear, and I believe many people are accepting in these choices. Its never bad to forgive someone (though difficult) and people only look favorably upon people who love others.

What about peace? What about freedom? What about truth and life? These are also things that we read about in scripture, but somehow it seems people miss that, or don't feel similarly. Why do we sit around waiting to "feel at peace," "feel freed from our past," "feel alive..." Why don't we choose these things? Why don't we choose to be at peace, trusting that God will deliver us and provide for us, just like He said He would? Do we really believe a God that created the universe isn't able to provide for us in the middle of a failing economy? (He's bigger than the economy.)

Why don't we choose to be free, and walk in freedom? God says that through His son Jesus, we have obtained completion and righteousness in Him. He has separated us from our sins, as far as the east is from the west. Why do we wait to "feel free" before we really start walking without the guilt and shame of who we were?

Why don't we choose life? We wait and seek and pray about where we are... why don't we listen to the passions of our heart? Why don't we pursue the things that really make us come alive? Why do we drown ourselves in duty and obligation, rather than chasing after what we desperately long for? Why don't we choose to really live, and what would happen if we did?

The simple point I try to make is this: in the end, everything about who we are, what we believe, and how we live is determined by the choices we make. When scripture says we have been given something, we have to choose to believe it, and once we make that choice, we have to choose to apply it in our life.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." (Deut 30:19)

Choose well.