The Chosen Ones

The Fifteen Lives of Harry August. That's a new title I picked up at the book store the other day. As a reader, that's what we do, with each book, we live another life. In some ways I think that reading stories about other people, by other people, makes living our own lives a little easier. In other ways I think they have distorted our view of the way things really function in this world.

Currently, I'm reading the second installment of the Divergent series, Insurgent. Splayed across the top of the dark olive green cover in stark white block letters reads, "One Choice Can Destroy You." Not all that profound when you read it...but after it swishes around in your mouth for a few moments you realize the brutal truth within this small, simple statement. And the thing is, you can apply it to any aspect of your life. After all, life is just a series of choices. Like Michelle Pfeiffer says in Dangerous Minds, "Every day you make a choice. You choose to get on that bus. That is a choice. There are no victims in this classroom." "One Choice Can Destroy You." But the choice is always yours.

Joyce Meyer is a female evangelist who I listen to occasionally on television or on audio when I'm riding in the car. In a fantastic audio series of a conference she participated in on the theme of love, Joyce said, "You can't wait around until you feel like serving God . . . or praying, [or making a positive change in your relationship with your spouse or family member or friend]. If you wait on feeling like it, you will be waiting an eternity. You have to make the decision to choose to do [these things]. The excitement, the desire to continue, the evolution of it all will naturally fall into place. But it starts when you choose."

Make like Michael Jackson, start with the man in the mirror.

Swallow pride. Bury fears. Remove the veil from vulnerability. If you can't trust your special someone with these things, who can you trust?

Be the choice you want to see in the world.

Choose, today.