Responding
or Deciding
26-27
August 2006
John
6:53, 60 - 69
There
are two ways to live life. One way is by responding the other
is by deciding. And the path you adopt will influence everything.
If you live by responding you adopt a passive attitude towards
life. The ups and downs of life are in control, and your role
is only to react to them. If you win the lottery everything
is good. If you lose your job, there is only sadness and despair.
On the other hand if you live your life by deciding, you exert
some control over your future and who you will be. By claiming
a say in your future, you can shape the ups and downs of life
rather then having them shape you.
The
power to decide is real. It can operate in even the most dire
of circumstances. The Viennese psychiatrist Victor Frankl
spent three years in a nazi concentration camp. In his memoirs,
Man's Search For Meaning, he asserts that he was
able to survive those three years because he retained the
freedom to choose. Now this is a remarkable claim because
the freedom to choose is almost non-existent in a nazi concentration
camp. You cannot choose what to wear, when you are going to
sleep or work, what you are going to eat. You cannot choose
when you might live or die. Yet Viktor Frankl claimed that
he never gave up his freedom to choose how he would live the
next moment. He said even though every other freedom was taken
from him he was able to retain the most basic freedom—the
freedom to determine what your attitude would be in any circumstance,
the freedom to choose your own way.
Now
what did Frankl mean? An example. There was always a shortage
of food in the concentration camp – not enough food to keep
everyone alive. But Viktor Frankl chose not to steal food
from those that were weaker than he was. However much he wanted
to, he chose not to pry bread out of the hands of children
and the elderly and the sick simply because he had the strength
to do so. He watched as many members of the camp did exactly
that – stealing bread from the hungry and the weak so that
they might live. He watched how they indeed did live for weeks
and months longer whereas those from whom they stole the food
quickly died. But he also watched how those same people who
lived longer often lost the will to live. They knew that they
had lost their humanity, becoming animals in feeding off each
other. Frankl chose to starve rather than feed off the weakness
of others. He chose to die rather than lose his humanity.
He insists that this choice is what gave him the will to survive.
Although every other freedom was taken from him, he was still
able to retain the freedom to choose.
Now
it is clear that today's readings call us to live life not
by responding but by choosing, by deciding. Joshua says in
the first reading “As for me and my household we will serve
the Lord”. Even though many of the other disciples abandon
Jesus because of the difficulty of his teaching, Peter speaks
for the twelve and says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life”.
So
the scriptures today say that a Christian is one who is willing
to decide. To decide, that is, as long as we understand what
deciding is and what it is not. Here is where we must make
an important distinction. Deciding does not mean that we believe
that our decisions will necessarily be effective. Deciding
is not magic. God is the only one whose decisions always have
effect. It is God alone who can say, “Let there be light,”
and there is light. We do not have that kind of decision-making
power. We cannot say, “I decide I will never contract cancer.
I decide that that person will love me. I decide that my children
will never become addicted to drugs.” There are many things
in life over which we do not have control. Saying that we
decide to accomplish them does not make it so.
Christian
deciding, then, is not believing that we can control our lives.
Christian deciding is choosing to believe. To believe that
God is real and active in our lives and in our world and to
choose to be open to that action and cooperate with it. A
Christian who has cancer has the freedom to choose to live
life each day rather than enduring life as a victim. A Christian
who is rejected in love can choose to move on to a new relationship
in which love is possible. Christians whose children become
addicted to drugs have the freedom to choose still to be parents
and still to be supportive, even if they are disappointed.
In
every circumstance we have the freedom to choose, the freedom
to believe that God is real and present. We can choose to
remain open to that presence. In every circumstance we have
the freedom to live with love, with justice with integrity.
Although we cannot always control what we must face in life,
we can choose how we will live life. The ups and downs of
life are not in control. You are. So decide today to live
in mercy and in justice. Decide today to live in love and
integrity. Decide today to believe that God is active in this
moment and that God is leading you to joy.
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