Own Your Choices
The problem we have is dealing with the reality that all choices have consequences. Many of us hold onto a childish desire to have perfect freedom without ever having to deal with any negative consequence. (And to be clear, by “negative consequence”, I’m not talking about punishment or even cause-effect of choosing poorly. Often negative consequences don’t have their source in anything we do wrong – they are just there!) Obviously, this is not how the world works. Just ask people like Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln. But many people feel like they are forced to live in ways that do not fit their desires or values because to do otherwise carries a real risk of some negative consequence. (God describes this tendency of ours: “you are very willing to commit evil instead of suffering.”)
When you understand how completely responsible you are for every choice you make, it can be very empowering. I may still make the same sort of choices I made when I felt like I had no choice. Or I may decide to go another way that I hadn’t thought to try before. But it will be my choice.
You can make any choice you want in life . . . You just have to live with the consequences!