The Power To Choose
As I write today, I am grateful.
For so many things, both past and present. I suppose I am most grateful for life itself. It is no small thing that we have been given life. And, amazingly I think, we have the freedom to make some choices about how we live. For most of us, anyway - some are not so blessed. Yet even then, I think about Victor Frankel. He wrote this out of the suffering of the Holocaust:
“Everything can be taken from a man (or woman) but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances…When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
There’s a lot in this quote. I do believe there is a limit to human freedom, but the basic point is sound: it’s what we do next that matters. How we think. How we act. What we believe. How we love.
I ponder these sorts of things. I’m guessing some of you do as well.
It’s kind of funny, when you think about it. I’m basically an old guy, with VERY limited tech skills (tech-savvy is never a descriptor that comes up on skill inventories or as an endorsement for me on Linked In!)
In a way I am the least likely candidate to begin to have more of a presence on the internet, and to share some of what life has taught me. Then again, perhaps the truth is our lives are all that we really have to share. Being who we are speaks, whether we like it or not.
As I shared in my first post, Be Mission Ready, this life I’ve been given has been very challenging at times. You can read more about that in my Bio.
Yet it is also true that there have been many wonderful in-breakings of light and joy. Sometimes, these surprising, happy moments have happened in the wilderness, in the outdoors, “where a person can remember that they have a soul” (thanks Michael for that quote when you were a teenager). I’ve experienced them in the birth and life of my children and grandchildren, in my marriage, even when I muck it up, and in the kindness and love of friends. I feel it in the authentic praise of God’s people, and all of creation as it sings it’s love song to the Creator.
These happy moments have also happened through the beauty of the performing and visual arts. It blows my mind how art is able to touch us at a very deep level. It disarms us, traverses our defenses and can open us in a powerful way to the big questions of life:
Who am I?
What is my purpose, my mission?
Does life have real meaning?
If there’s a God, what is it/he like?
Why is life so hard?
Why is my heart bent toward gazing at and worshipping something?
And a million more. Some of our questions are very personal: Why do I see the world differently from most people? Why do I keep making really bad choices? Why do I not feel heard or accepted or loved? (I know these questions well, because I’ve asked all of them).
We keep on asking these deep questions; they keep coming up, inconveniently, at different stages of our lives. I think this is because as we age, we grow (or we should), and our vision of the world adjusts as we receive more light. Experience is a great, though not infallible, teacher.
And that’s what this site is about. I’ll be sharing about the beauty and truth and joy that I’ve discovered., through books, art, music, poetry, outdoor experiences and relationships. It won’t be flashy, or gimmicky, or very polished. I’m too old for that. It’s more about the journey, about exploring, and about longing together for our real home.
‘Til next time.