People tend to live their lives completely apart from one another… not considering that their actions and choices effect others lives, much less their own. It is with this mentality that we have become so ignorant of choice. Our lives are dictated entirely by choice and nothing else. We are given an option to respond to any and every circumstance that comes our way, although most people choose to run on an “auto pilot” course of life. Never giving any thought to the idea that what they choose in their lives whether past or present have landed them where they are now.
While there is the popular religious opinion that our lives and paths are dictated by some higher power and that there is no real choice in life. With this opinion, especially looking at it from a biblical perspective there is a seeming contradiction in the sense that in the beginning man was given a free will. He chose to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you were of the religious opinion that God dictates our choices then the real outcome would be that God forced man to sin against him. Hence the contradiction, but if you were to look at it from the other point of view it is then that you realize we have a choice. And what the Christian faith really portrays is God who has a plan and dictates our steps it is our choice to follow that plan or not.
I truly believe life is what you make it. I usually attempt at avoiding clichés but at this point my writing requires such a statement. Choices have the potential to lead many down a path of pain and suffering and wrong choices, while they also have to ability to make life an adventure, and bring change to the world. Choice is “amoral”. It is incapable of causing evil or good in and of itself; it is subject to our will.
This typically offers hope, to know that the most abundant resource in life is at my disposal and has the utmost power and potential. I have to ability to excel and reach places no one has ever been before. I have the ability and the choice to change the world. On the negative side of things I can also ruin the world, ruin those I love. Kill my purposed and destroy my passion.
This is done through routine and an auto pilot life. Life then becomes mundane and boring. And essentially the opposite of what life is meant to be. Life is a gift, one which holds an exceptional amount of value. And by no means was it designed to be boring. We breath, we work, we die. This is not life. Life is excitement, passion, love, change, adventure, and at times, sorrow, grief, hurt, and confusion. Life is in no way an easy ride. Choices are not always apparent and rarely are. Right is not always easy and not always praised by men.
While life is a challenge, and a metaphorical Everest, it has been conquered. And it has been beaten. While many have died and fallen victim to its bloodlust and icy grip, there have been those who have reached the top and earned the honor of standing amongst the few that have suffered under the same challenge and circumstances.
Like Everest and the few who can claim they have beaten life, there have been people before you. There have been individuals who have surpassed all odds and made the right choices and routed life and taken it by surprise. This unfamiliar path is not without its sorrows, loss, and pain, but is also accompanied by passion, joy, and accomplishment. Most importantly you are awarded with the title of conqueror. A title very few in history have ever claimed.
The world is not without its stories of men who have made the unpopular choice and risen to the top. America has been based on the choices of men, who faced a certain death by which most were forced to pay. America is founded upon the “Spirit of Life” it was formed under the belief that the “Pursuit of happiness” was a right, not to be taken away by government or any man. Happiness can only be achieved through purpose, and the purpose of man is to live. And to live is to conquer.
