Living or Existing...the Choice is Yours

All around today we seem to be bombarded with the thought or at least the concept of choice. But as I observe, most of us seem to be settling into a strange form of mere existence rather than making the higher choice of life. For all intents and purposes a rock exists, but who wants to be a rock? This is not a new thought, even as far back as the founding of the nation of Israel the Lord put the proposition before His people when He said to them, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:"(Deut.30:20). And who didn't have the famous quote of Joshua hanging framed somewhere in their house: "Choose you this day whom you will serve... ...but as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord!" Ahhh, inspiring words. Words to live by. But today we have given up choice for a strange need to comply. We cover our true intentions by using words like tolerance, and free thinking; while what we really mean to say is 'if you say what I'm doing is okay then I'll say what you're doing is okay.' It is no longer good enough in society for a person to be "wrong", but now we have demanded that everyone else approves of the formerly wrong standard and call it good. I said in an earlier post, that we as black people in America seem to have given up the goal of God, Family, and Education for the new ideal of Me, Money, and Mine. And with this transition have given up on ourselves as a people and adopted...or rather have complied with a new norm that makes us not a people, but a fractured group. When I hear America song by Ray Charles and hear the words of self sacrifice and the idea of others being valued and thought of as worth living for, I am immediately taken to a place within myself that makes me want somehow and in someway simply make the whole of America just a little bit better. Think about it.