Choose Life!!!

“Choose life then...” Deuteronomy 30:19

What does it mean to choose life? To most people it would mean choosing a way of life that leads to happiness and satisfaction, even satiation. 

How many stories have I heard of young boys and girls living on the edge, chasing after the ultimate high, going from one drug to another, one partner to another, and then finding it’s just one little death after another. 

There’s Father Donald Calloway’s descent into drugs, pornography, and sex. He even got treated in a mental institution, joined the Yakuza in Japan, and followed heavy metal bands. His mother would cry herself to sleep praying for him. One day he almost killed himself but instead converted to Catholicism after attending mass and hearing a voice commanding him, “Worship!”

Then there’s Stephen Baldwin who “snorted enough cocaine to throw the entire population of a small South American country into anaphylactic shock”. He and his wife Kenya came to know the Lord because of their Brazilian maid who kept singing about Jesus. 

How about Brian “Head” Welch who was the lead guitarist of Korn, a heavy metal band? He used to need Meth and Xanax just to function. He was high even when cooking breakfast for his daughter. Even if his band won several Grammys, had women falling all over him, had all the money he desired, he felt like the biggest loser. One day he went to church with his partner in his business, and the pastor said, “God is real. Speak with Him. All the bad stuff will fall away.” Brian started reading the Bible and pleading with God to free him from all his pain. In 2 weeks, his addictions to drugs and alcohol was gone. 

We may not be into drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc., but we do need to choose life every day. We can’t say yes to God once and that’s it. We have to say a lifetime of yesses. Yes Lord, I choose life! I choose You!