Wed 18 Mar 2009
Guess what? I don’t have to *do* anything. I don’t have to be obedient to anyone, I don’t have to eat food, I don’t have to drink water. Maybe if you don’t believe me, you’re someone who believes we’re robots with no will. Even if a punishment for one of those things is death, I still could choose to take that inaction and suffer the consequences.
I’m serious, though. Ok, parents, stop hyperventilating and banning your kids from reading my blog - because I claim I don’t have to do anything. Notice, I didn’t say I *can* do everything. I just don’t have to do anything. I can’t do a lot of things. But there’s nothing that I *have* to do. I think when we realize that, then we start to realize what we *can* do. Otherwise life is determined by things that we can’t do.
Of course, my conversation is sprinkled with “I have to do this..” and “I need to..” But what if all I said was “I choose to do this”? I wouldn’t have any excuses for my actions, later, for one thing, and I’d probably reconsider a lot of my choices in the light that I *am* indeed choosing them and they are not being forced upon me.
One thing that seems terrible to say is “I have to be good.” I wish it were always “I want to be good!” Maybe words don’t really matter. It’s the heart, for sure. But maybe if we chose different words it would help us to realize that we are held accountable for our actions. Your parents requiring an outward appearance of being “good” does not make you good, even if you choose to comply with their requirements. Your acquaintances demanding that you reciprocate their advances in getting to know you doesn’t make you friends.
So…now, friends and blog readers - CHOOSE to follow God. Choose to love. Choose to be who God wants you to be. But, you don’t have to. I’m just telling you to. I’m not the voice of decision in your life.
Posted by Bonnie under Uncategorized
March 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Wow this was splendidly written, the way it builds and concludes.
I remember realizing, some years ago, that Jesus’s defeating the world for his followers (read John 16) partly is just this: They can be killed, but they know that death is nothing; indeed, they already die every day.
Once a military young friend offered to shoot some wicked segment of the world, and then began to talk about the puissance of the gun. And I said to her, What is more powerful than the gun? Whom can the gun command not at all — indeed, it only can encourage him in his will? She could not think of any answer, and I said: Why, he who wants to die no gun can affect at all.