We Get to Choose

I first came across this quote many years ago. It was on a poster of a big gumball machine
with its lip wide open and hundreds of gum balls were flooding out. I hung the
poster in my office.

We have a choice, you know. We may greet the day with dread, fear, doom and gloom.
Or we may welcome the day with gratitude and joy.

We have the power and freedom to choose life in its best, or wallow in our personal losses, regrets, resentments, anger, sorrow, and suffering. Our brains have a preference for hanging on to negative experiences. We are hardwired for survival. Sometimes such choices become very difficult for us.

We live in a culture of bullies and victims.  I understand trauma. I have both experienced, and see up close its ravages on people’s lives daily. I know its terror and darkness. I also know we are survivors. If you are caught in the grip of trauma and loss, I hold you in my heart. These words are not a condemnation but a call to hope that you will not always be in its grip.  We do not have to wallow. We have more power than we think.

 Our world seems to thrive on negative outlooks. There are industries that focus on and profit from our misery and offer a constant stream of remedies. It almost as if our economy depends on people feeling afraid, alone, sad, rejected.

We are not doomed. We have a choice. I have a quote stuck to the lampshade on my desk: Don’t trip over something that is behind you.

Many years ago, as I was out walking with my daughters. My oldest, Diana, walked ahead of me. I was pushing her sister in the stroller. When Diana spotted a person down the block coming our way, she exclaimed, “Mom, maybe they are bringing a present for me!”

What if we walked into our life each day expecting presents, joyful surprises, and goodness coming to meet us?

I have another sticker on my lampshade: You can do this.

Defy the gloom that suffocates your joy. Expect miracles. Choose life, love, goodness.

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life so that you and your descendants will live – loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him. That’s how you will survive and live long on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.