“What brought you here,” I asked the tall, auburn-haired cashier. After learning she wasn’t originally from the small Montana town I was passing through, it was my follow-up question. I had stopped at the grocery store to stretch my legs and gain some local insight.
“The back of a Harley,” she exclaimed with a half-smile as she proceeded to tell about a motorcycle ride from Phoenix many years prior. She had made one trip back to Arizona to gather her few belongings and now only rarely goes back to visit family and remind herself why she fell in love with the small town in Big Sky country.
I’m intrigued by stories like hers of leaving the familiar to experience unsure adventure, especially when it has no connection with a career move, health conditions, or some other definite excuse. While some would judge “those kinds of folk” as not having roots or reason, J. R. R. Tolkien accurately pointed out that “Not all those who wander are lost.”
Before you think I’m discrediting the value of staying put or being firmly founded and committed to a place, a cause, or relationship, I highly respect those who have found their calling and know where they’re supposed to be in life. People who have never left their birthplace and will be buried there give people like me a place to have their mail forwarded to pick up on my way through.
The Old Testament is full of nomads. Jesus’ disciples suddenly dropped their family businesses, natives of one land risked their lives to find a better one, and missionaries have given up security to share the gospel in unsafe places. Without apparent rationale, men and women have been on the move—searching and living through history. They travel light and minimize their regrets.
Suppose you aren’t that kind of person; good for you. Knowing where you need to be is as liberating as wandering on the loose. We each choose to go or stay. What’s important is how we live where we live. In my search for wisdom, I’m learning to live by Deuteronomy 30:19–20 (NRSV), “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and holding fast to Him….”
This verse reminds me that our choices matter because their consequences forever shape our lives and the lives of others. In almost every moment of our lives—in our thoughts, imaginations, actions, and even our inactions—we make choices that lead either toward life or death.
Various choices can take different amounts of strategy, time, and consideration. But choosing life, as the Bible instructs, involves the awareness of those tendencies in us that easily destroy or sustain our lives. When you make a crucial decision, do you think to ask, “Will this decision sabotage me or nourish me?”
As a Christian, there are some solids in the Deuteronomy command: loving God, obeying Him, and holding to His ways. God promised that His presence would never leave us. Knowing that, what does “choose life” mean to you? What brings you life? What choices take life from you? What choices are you making or not making that are life-giving?
I’m a mid-century man learning how extremely short life is. I encourage you to make every day count. I challenge you to be where you want to be with no regrets and build community with people you deeply care about. The bottom line: Choose life so that you may live.
Choose Life
