this morning, i saw a link on my facebook homepage. it led to a note written by a friend of mine, with the same title as this blog post. this is what he wrote:
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We can't choose our parents or families.
We can't choose the countries we are born into.
We can't choose the bodies we are born with.
We can't choose the society around us.
We can't choose the weather.
We can't choose the air we breathe.
We can't choose the principles and expectations the world imposes upon us.
It's a joke to think we really choose anything.
In the end, the only real choice we have is to live or give up.
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This is my response:
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We can choose to love and cherish our parents and our families, or to bear bitter grudges against them and hold them at arms' length.
We can choose to stay and make a difference in the countries we are born into, or emigrate into what may or may not be a better life in some other country.
We can choose to keep our bodies healthy and be thankful for the fact that they're mostly functional, or nitpick about our physical flaws and imperfections and never really see how wonderfully designed it is.
We can choose to engage with society around us and be an agent for positive change, or enjoy time alone in isolation away from society, or alternate between the two.
We can choose to enjoy the warmth of the sun, the elemental power of a thunderstorm, the beauty of cloud patterns against a clear blue sky; or just complain when weather isn't exactly as we want it to be.
We can choose to practice a lifestyle which improves the quality of the air that we breathe - carpool, don't smoke, etc - or one which continues the pollution and degradation of our air.
We can choose to accept the principles and expectations that the world imposes upon us, and be conformed to the pattern of this world; or have the courage to live counter-culture, according to the principles and expectations of God, and be transformed by the renewing our our minds.
It's no joke to think we really have choices to make.
In the end, it makes the difference between seeing life as a fatalistic choice between living and giving up, and seeing life as a great adventure full of choices to make... The most important of which, is the choice to enjoy it together with the One who gave us life in the first place.
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ironically, to believe that we don't have choices, is in itself a choice. =P
so, what do you choose? =)
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7 comments:
We must believe in free will - we have no choice.
haha, yes, very ironic ethan =)
or, we must use our free will to choose to believe in predestination...=P
Haha... although we cannot choose our parents,families or whatever... We can still choose to make the best out of everything! =p
Awesome, Blink. <3
does it really matter when there are things we cannot choose. It does really matter.
What matters is what will you choose from where you are now.
TO choose the best for ourselves and perhaps for the best of others too.
fuiyor....geng wor...
I loved your response. Gets you thinking. As I read the first part (the one in green) I couldn't help feeling a little depressed. But after reading your response (the part in blue), I feel optimistic. Optimistic in the sense that it IS true there are things we have no choice over, but what's the most important is the response towards a certain something.
Just as you chose to respond to your friend's note in a perspective full of God-given hope, choosing to hope rather than despair over these things (petty, in the overall scheme) of life, makes all the difference in the world.
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