“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” —John 15:4-5

Are you still sitting on the sidelines waiting for life to find you?

Are you waiting for life to tap you on the shoulder?
To recognise you, to sweep you up, to crown you with meaning and momentum?

If so, beloved, you’ve misunderstood the sacred architecture of the spiritual life.

Life does not hunt you down.
Life does not fall upon you like rain.
Life is not an accident you stumble into.

Life is chosen. Intentionally. Courageously. Repeatedly.

This is the quiet genius of the Christian path: that God places before you two realms—life and death—and then dignifies you with the power to choose your portion every single day.

Not in the loud moments, but in the hidden ones. Not merely with your lips, but with the subtle agreements of your inner world:

→ the thoughts you allow to linger,
→ the narratives you entertain,
→ the tone you speak over yourself,
→ the imaginations you rehearse,
→ the posture you take before God and before your own soul.

These are the daily votes you cast for life or for death.

And I will not leave you with a command without a compass. This is one of the quiet failings of modern sermons: they tell you what to do but withhold the intricacies of how. They urge you to rise but give you no staircase.

So let us begin by asking the sacred question that opens the door to transformation:

If I must choose life—and my heart longs to—how, then, does a human soul choose?

Deuteronomy 30:19

What does this choosing look like in thought? In desire? In the secret chambers of the imagination? In the unseen architecture of the inner self?

These are the questions that lead you into true mastery of a successful, happy and fully satisfied life.

And you want to be successful and happy, successful and fully satisfied right?

READ MORE: CHOOSE LIFE: THE COSMIC COURT, THE COVENANTAL WITNESS, AND HOW OUR CHOICES MAKE US

A CHOOSING PRAYER

Father,
Teach me the art of choosing life—not once, not occasionally,
but moment by moment with a steady, awakened heart.

Illuminate the currents of my inner world.
Show me where I have quietly aligned myself with fear,
where I’ve made silent agreements with despair,
where resignation has been mistaken for humility.

Lead me back into the splendour of the life You offer—
a life that is robust, whole, expansive, and free.

Form within me a pattern of choosing well,
a reflex of turning toward truth, hope, and holiness.
Let this daily choosing become not only my portion
but the inheritance of those who will walk after me.

Amen.