It seems silly to suggest that you should choose life and it is, but when I look around and observe how we live and some of the decision that we make, I believe more than ever that living is a choice, and we must choose life.
Freud thought we were being pulled from this way to that by our life and death wish. We would consciously and subconsciously make decisions that both better and destroy our life. I don’t believe in those forces, but I don’t deny that as a human race we choose death more than we would care to admit. We put ourselves down, think awful things about our abilities, rarely look in the mirror, engage in gossip, cheat, steal, and lounge around looking for the next flash of entertainment to light up our life.
Life is a choice. You were given your life so that you would find meaning in it. You were born to find a purpose, whatever that purpose may be, even if its small, or unrecognized and unappreciated by others. Choose to live and let that be your guiding light in everything that you do.
Ask yourself where this leads. Don’t be timid or afraid of being rational, but remember that feelings are extremely powerful and it is not enough to just think like Mr. Spock and be done with it. Your feelings will come at you again and again, and probably at your weakest and when you least expect it. Life is going to test you. God will wait to see how determined and serious you really are. There is nothing worse than wasted talent and life has no intention of wasting anything that is truly precious.
You have to choose life. You have to knock on that door before it is open for you. You may have to knock more than once. You may have to knock hard. You may even have to knock for many, many years, but knock you shall and you must.
In choosing life you are also choosing to give life to others because we all watch and observe each other. We watch what our neighbour is doing. We cling to hope and look for examples of success. But none of that hope and examples matter if we are unwilling to choose ourselves and choose life over death and act accordingly. Actions are measured much better than words. Words are best to explain and reflect, in themselves they just a breath, and without a body a breath serves no purpose and is nothing more than a gust of wind.
You stand courageously between life and death. Every day of your life you stand at a crossroad between success and failure, being and doing, building or destroying. You can either get to work on your dreams and build something meaningful, or you can choose to do nothing, or worse, choose to destroy what others have tried to build for so long.
Life gives birth to life. Death gives birth to nothing. Choose the right side. Be vigilant against a life of quiet desperation and the pressures of a civilization of death. Know that you’re alive. Hunt relentlessly for meaning and your life’s purpose. Make no apologies. Knock on every door until it is opened and always choose life.
The alternative is no choice at all.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Kyle Glenn via unsplash.com
