Choose to live

So I'm getting "trained" at work on how to be an effective person.  I'm not the only one in the class so don't just think that they're picking on me because I'm ineffective.  Anyway, the first habit in being an effective person is to be proactive.  Basically to live your life based on your choices rather than on your circumstances.  For instance, if you invite me to do something, I can't go because I "have to" watch the kids and spend time with my family, I "choose" to watch my kids and spend time with my family.  When someone invites me to something exciting and then tell me it's on a Sunday.  I shouldn't respond with, "I'd love to but I have to go to church", rather I "choose" to go to church.  Basically, it's choosing to live your life and not have it lived for you by everything else going on around you. 

Sometimes as a Christian, I make my faith and church a routine where it feels like something I "have to do" because I'm the youth leader.  When in fact, it's the life that I have chose because it's what I prefer to do.  I love serving God and seeking His will in my life.  Sometimes I/we send the wrong message to the outside world because with all of our "have to's" and "I've got nothing better do" statements and attitudes that it's no wonder why others aren't drawn to the Jesus that I/we have come to know and love.  I chose to follow Christ because I wanted to experience real life, abundant life.  Daily, I have to continue to choose this life and not the life that the world is offering.  Your life is full of choices.  I hope you choose to pause and look at it quickly.  What life are you choosing to live?  Is it what you had planned/hoped for?  Is it the life that God had in store for you?  Is it you choosing God's will or your own will?  Questions for you and I to ponder. 

"Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."  James 4:4b