You Have a Choice....

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.
Thich Nhat Hahn

I think it might have been Greg Boyd (but then again maybe not...and google yields no helpful results)..... but even if I don't remember for sure who said it...I remember the gist of what they said.

Sort of along the lines of "if you keep making that face it will freeze that way" The comparison was to our hearts and conscience. The decisions we make build upon the decisions we have already made..and affect the decisions we have yet to make. In essence, in the case of bad decisions, slowly but surely our heart freezes that way. We become jaded. We become hard. And we find ourselves on a downward spiral of despair. We lose hope.

Now I by no means think this is a permanent thing. I've said before...like Colonel Klink on Hogan's Hero's (am I dating myself or what???) "he has his ways" of bending the most stubborn knee. Jesus said he came to give us life..and to give it more abundantly. He sets before us life and death. He tells us to choose life. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit....tapping into the Christ nature within....we can (most of the time) discern the choice most likely to lead to life.

My daughter Beth continued to "make that face" this past summer. Bad choice upon bad choice leading to even worse choices. It was one hell of a summer. I kept telling her ...when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!! Sometimes I would just look at her and say, "Stop digging, Beth!!!" Yet, she continued to dig that hole deeper and deeper...pulling the rest of us down there with her.

Somewhere along the way, she made a few good choices. They started to accumulate and now (fingers crossed and sending up a prayer) she seems to be making more good choices than bad choices. She seems to be headed in the direction of life. Thank goodness, she finally stopped digging!!!

Throughout each day, God gives us hundreds of opportunities to choose life....or to choose death. Rarely are these choices life or death situations but when we continue to choose life (in even the seemingly unimportant matters) it sets a foundation for the next choice that leads to life. Unfortunately it also works the same when we choose the other direction.

......I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life