Looking over the topics that I post weekly, I see a common theme.  I write mainly to encourage my brothers and sisters to trust that God exists, and he is who he says he is.  This week I want to approach from a different direction.

We begin by being born into this world.  The world we are born into exists with no input from us.  We didn’t choose where we would live, what race we would be, or what economic level our existence would embrace.  We are given an unknown number of years to live in this world.  We seem to have arrived with certain elements of personality and ability, but from the very start they are molded by the influences of our placement.  None of the beginning circumstances of our life have been our choice.   We will, throughout our lives, make numerous choices, but they will all be influenced by the placement we did not choose.

With this perspective in mind, the question that presents itself is what choices do we get to make?  We get to choose our response to each event in our lives, but not without outside pressures.  As I said, our responses are affected by surrounding influences.  We seem to have an inherent awareness of what is right and what is wrong.  A basic morality if you will.  Yet, if our culture says for instance an eye for an eye, we’ll be compelled to comply with that concept.  It’s our choice whether to comply, but we are under the pressure of what we are expected to choose.

So, why am I here?  Is this all there is?  Can I break away from this temporal existence upon which I have arrived?  Certainly these are reasonable questions that mankind has asked throughout the ages, and there are a lot of answers to these questions floating around.  When presented with these answers, we get to choose which one we believe is the right one.  Of all the things that are not our choice, choosing the right answer to these questions is our choice.  Trusting that God exists, and that he is who he says he is, seems the right choice to me.  I’m not trying to influence your choice, — oh yes I am.  Please forgive me, and please make the right choice.