May the Lord give you grace and peace during this Lent. It is 23rd February 2023. We reflect on Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Luke 9:22-25.
The season of Lent, in addition to prayer, penance and fasting, invites us to intensify our quest for life. Life is more than pleasure, wealth, status, and power.
Life is all about relationships. How do we relate with God and one another?
Living in the love of the Lord and for others gives us life. Our contentment comes by living a life that pleases God.
Life is a gift and blessing and a privilege from God to live for God and for others. To live for God and for others is indeed a sacrifice and challenge that pleases God.
For Moses, choosing life means loving God, walking in God’s ways, and “observing his commandments, decrees and ordinances” (Deuteronomy 30:16).
Choosing life is more than a decision but an expression of constant and consistent love for God and for others.
As Freud would put it, the instinct to live and annihilate us is right within. It is the passion for life that flavours our altruistic endeavours endlessly.
The choice is a chance to hear and meet the Lord who offers freedom and goodwill. It is our duty and responsibility to choose the right and the best for us and the welfare of the common good. No one can take away the power to choose unless we mortgage our minds and wills to evil and evil people. To choose means to be motivated not manipulated or manipulative.
Eleanor Roosevelt describes, “One’s philosophy is to best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”
Our happiness depends on the way we love God and obey God’s Word and the commandments.
As Jesus declares His passion and death for the first time, He stresses the importance of discipleship and discipline. Only in losing, do we gain.
The choice is totally ours. What do we want to choose today? God or the evil one? life and prosperity or death and disaster? May God bless you.