Choose Life

John 14:6 6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life”

Choices. What a difference a decision can make, or especially a string of decisions.

The following stories are true. The names have been changed to protect . . . well, me. But I have known both young men, who are of different ages and from different school systems. And I see their stories, or similar ones, at different stages, every day.

Aaron was bursting with potential. Bright, attractive, personable, he enjoyed ideas, sports, music, the military. His dream was to join an elite Army corps and to be a military officer. Aaron has the kind of mind that can strategize, analyze, and follow through on a plan.

While there were some family problems, most people didn’t see them. And in comparison to most kids at school today, his situation was a cut above the rest.

But while still in high school alarming signs showed up. He became possessive of his girlfriend and seethed in anger when opposed. Our joy at what could be his future began to be overshadowed by concern.

He began his dream, but got waylaid by an injury. In the process of healing, he found drugs eased more than the physical pain. He was discharged from the military, continued to abuse drugs, associated with other abusers, and finally was convicted in a murder and implicated in another.

So much potential! But now he is sentenced to a lifetime in federal prison and two families have lost their sons.

That should have been the road that Austin would take. Severely neglected as a ‘tween, brilliant, angry at the world, with a brother already doing time, Austin had every recipe for disaster. Besides purposefully aggravating his teachers just for the entertainment value, he, too, slid into the drug scene.

But somewhere in his early teens Austin made a momentous choice. He chose to create a positive life for himself. He chose constructive behavior over camping out at the principal’s office. He chose to apply himself. He chose to turn his back on the drug culture. He chose a future.

Today Austin has his own business, actually looks happy, and is clean as a whistle.

Aaron had his dreams and a life of purpose at his fingertips, but chose disaster. Austin seemed condemned to disaster, but he chose life.

Deut. 30:15 ¶ See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 19 … I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life . . .”

What will I choose today?