Choose life

Life is a big mixture of many things. Some are pleasant, others less so. But whatever ingredients are being put into the cauldron of life there is always a choice involved. Either choosing those things that help us make our lives flourish or letting ourselves be kidnapped and exploited by our unbridled passions and desires.

The Bible explains this reality so well. When the Lord God established his loving covenant with his people he told them: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them" (Deut 30, 19-20).

At one point in our lives we turn to God and express our unjustified anger and fury against him. God cannot not love us. He is pure love in itself. He cannot be blamed with the mess we do with our lives and those of others. He is so loving that he respects our freedom. Even when we distorted it with our wayward thoughts, words and actions, both personally and socially, that utterly destroyed the peace He wants for our hearts to have.

His are loving invitations for a deep and personal relationship with Him and through Him with others. In Him we learn to work for a more just and human society. He gave us minds to think and enact laws that safeguard life from its conception till its very natural end. He gave us the capacity to speak to articulate and create an atmosphere of respect, solidarity, justice and peace. He gave us ears to listen the cries of those who are oppressed and give them voice. He gave us hearts to treasure what is good, beautiful and true and let it be our driving force to balance justice with mercy. He gave us hands to work tirelessly for the building of the civilisation of love.

God gave us all the means to have life and have it in abundance not only for us but also for the future generations. It is up to us to choose. Let us "choose life!" (Deut 30, 19).