I Choose Life!

OK, OK, here I go with another movie theme, but every time I hear Sid the Sloth say to Diego the Saber Tooth Tiger, "I choose Life,"  it not only makes me laugh, but brings up a terrific line.  "I choose life."  Studying the book of James has made me contemplate this saying even more.   James tells us in the first chapter:  

"Consider pure joy my brothers, when ever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature, complete lacking in nothing.  If any of you lack wisdom he should ask God who gives generously..."

You may be asking, "what does that have to do with life or Sid?"  Hold on, I will explain. Do you ever find yourself in the midst of a trial, or an unexpected problem that seemed to have come from no where?  Or, something that really seems to have absolutely no solution whatsoever, and it has left you drained, depressed, and dependent?  Maybe the problem even looks so bad that it is hopeless.  Tell yourself the same thing that Sid told Diego, "I choose life." That can look different in diverse situations.  Know, that when you choose to give into the hopelessness of the situation,  that in a sense you are choosing death not life.  When we choose to willfully sin we also are choosing death as well.  A friend shared with me this morning a verse in the Psalms that goes right along with this:  

"This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and their followers who approve of their sayings.  Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them.  The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.  But God will redeem my life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself."  Psalms 49: 13-15

How often, I should say, how many times in a day do I fall back into the old routine of trusting in myself?  As James talks about the man that sees himself in a mirror, walks away, and forgets what he looks like.  I am forever forgetting just how needy I am.  I forget that in order to know or learn wisdom (as James also says) I have to begin with humility before God. Crying out to Him to save me from myself.  I first have to remember what I looked like in the mirror of His perfect Word and character.  So, choosing life has to do with humility and gaining the grace (also in James) that only comes from admitting that "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, James 5:6."  I had a friend ask me the other day if I was omniscient.  This was in response to a trial that I had been going through, when I said that it would never get any better.  At first I just looked at her and then I was silent.  For I am not any where near omniscient, but I know the one who is.  Today why don't you and I strive to "Choose Life."