Life or Death?

I am thankful that I opened my bible this morning. If I get coffee with the intention of spending time with the Lord I usually get right into it, but this morning I felt a little distracted. I wanted to check my Facebook, then I wanted to to clear and organize in email inbox. I read all my emails and checked all the links I was sent. Doing something like this can be dangerous (and has proven to be disastrous) before time with God. So much time can pass that I no longer have time to really spend with the Lord. Fortunately, that was not the case this morning. I needed to confront my distractions head on and let them pass from me so I could free up more concentration for what I really sat down for, to hear from the Lord this morning.

This mornings text that jumped out to me was my reading in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 (ESV).


The Choice of Life and Death
 11"For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 14But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. 15"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.16If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."

Recently I told my son before I left him for his preschool that I hope he has a good day, then I looked at him and said, "but sometimes you have to decide to make it a good day." I don't know why I said it, but as I did it occurred to me that I should do the same.

I have been thinking about what I want to do with my life. I have been thinking about where I want to live the rest of my life. I have thinking about if I'm really happy. I feel like I've been lamenting more lately in my prayer life than rejoicing. After my brief conversation with my son I realized that sometimes things (like the universe and all in's interstellar vastness) won't always line up for me to make me more happy. Sometimes, I suppose, I have to choose to make it a great day. Sometimes kids won't always play with my son or he might not always get the treatment he feels he desires from everyone around him. I would hate for that to ruin his day (or worse...his days).  Similarly, my circumstances may not always go the way I want them to, but that shouldn't ruin me.

So how does all this connect to anything that jumped out to me from the scripture (above)?

I have been focusing on the bad, not the good. I have been focusing on my faults and failures. I have been surrounding myself with "Death." I don't want to choose that anymore (like it will go away forever right?), but I want to choose Life.

This morning I sifted through my distractions and I heard a word from the Lord and it has lifted me up.

Life isn't so much about doing right and wrong, so much as it's about choosing Life or Death. I will always make mistakes, but, at the same time, I can choose life.

v. 14 reads, "But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in you heart, so that you can do it."

I'm thankful for The Word of the Lord this morning. It's feeds me. It breaths new life within me. It reminds me and guides me.

This morning I choose life. I choose to hear the word of God. I choose to do it.

May you, too, choose life. May you hear from the Lord that life isn't so much about following all the "right" rules so much as it is about following the Lord.


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