Life, L'chaim, Leaning

 Life. 
We are alive. 
Yet at times dead inside. 
At times unable to fully live. 

One of my favourite passages in the Bible comes out of Deuteronomy. It reads as follows:

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." -Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Moses is at the end of his life and the Israelites have wandered in the desert for 40 years and they are about to enter the Promised Land. The choice is laid out before them very clearly. They can choose the blessing or the curse. Life or death. Living in the land or living in exile. God had promised them the land and His blessings and the land was rich and they would be prosperous and be in relationship with a God who had a deep desire to bless, love and multiply them.

Seems like a pretty easy, obvious decision. 

They chose life at first, but after awhile, they drifted and chose death. They saw something that seemed better in the moment, yet it was those things that would lead to their destruction.  

Sometimes I read about the Israelites and arrogantly scoff at how dumb they were to live their lives in such a way. And then I am radically humbled as I see in them such a clear reflection of myself and how so often I choose death over life. I often do it without thinking, because I want whatever is easier, whatever feels good and brings me pleasure and gratification in that moment. 

God calls us to choose life. 
To choose God. 
This isn't just any old life we're talking about. 
This is deep, abundant, rich life. 

I'm learning that part of choosing life involves embracing all of life, the good, the bad and the ugly. And yes I've talked about this before, but I will talk about it again. And likely again in the future. Embracing my own pain, accepting death, welcoming sadness... these are all included in a choice for life. Avoiding and running away will only create more problems and although they feel good in the moment, they are choices for destruction and death that will ruin me in the end. 

The prospect of choosing life is sometimes overwhelming when looking at the scope of life. I was recently challenged to ask myself the question:

What does choosing life look like in the next five minutes? 

Every decision I make within the next five minutes, as small as it might be, is a choice for life or death. 

For me today, that meant taking time to get ready and do my hair and makeup. It meant cleaning parts of the house that were in disarray. It meant enjoying writing letters to friends in the company of a friend. It meant enjoying time in the hot tub while stargazing (except the hot tub ended up being frigid, so the better choice for life in this case was to avoid the hot tub and make a puzzle instead). It meant taking a 20 minute nap. 

There's no set formula for what choosing life looks like. But, in the next five minutes, how is God inviting you to choose life? What does that look like in a tangible way right now?  

As I walk this journey with my mom, I am facing a lot of these questions frequently as I see her own strength fade. Yet lately, as there have been different improvement, I celebrate the ways in which life is evident within her. Today was the first day in months that we went on a non-medical outing and it was fantastic. We took silly pictures. We laughed and joked together. We marveled in awe at the beauty of the snow-covered mountains against the clear blue sky. 

We chose life. And it was wonderful. 

One of my favourite musicals, Fiddler on the Roof, has a song called 'L'chaim, To Life'! (Okay, I don't actually know if that's the real title, but those are the main words I sing really loudly as I dance around whenever this song comes to mind). I love singing this song, and shouting 'L'chaim'! from time to time, because it reminds me of this choice that is placed before me moment by moment. What will you choose?

To Life! To loving God, obeying God, and holding fast to Him. To life! 

How will you choose life in the next five minutes?
(I'm going to choose life by posting this and going to bed).

TO LIFE! L'CHAIM!