The other day I had this revelation concerning story.  We love a good story.  We are drawn into a good and moving story line.  We love action and romance.  We pull for the underdog and feel the bite of injustice.  We love it when we don’t know what is around the corner.  Will the villain die?  Will good ultimately triumph over evil?  We love the element of unpredictability in a good story…but what about in our story?  As much as we like all the elements of a moving story – we like our story to be predictable.

Why?  We get a certain sense of comfort and safety in knowing what we can expect.  We have a sense of control when things are predictable.  We can avoid pain, run from shame and not deal with certain life realities.  When we live this way though, are we really living?  Or have we chosen a form of mere existence?

To exist is to avoid pain.  To exist is to run from relationships.  To exist is to live with no sense of expectation outside of what is predictable and what I can control.  To exist is to run from pressure and remain the victim.

To live, on the other hand, is to take the difficult and much less traveled road of the in Christ life.  It is a road marked by forgiveness.  It is a path carved out by risk and the courage to refuse to stay a victim.  Paul said it best when he said, “To live is Christ.”

With the temptation to exist staring us in the face, refuse to give in.  Truly living doesn’t mean that our lives will be absent of pain, hardship and disappointment.  What it does mean, however, is that Christ is meeting us in those places giving us the energy and grace we need to be what we could not be on our own.

I choose to live!

What about you?