"Live Life" by Christy

When I think about what our Father is teaching me, it's kind of hard to narrow it down! It seems that I obviously NEED to be learning something constantly...because He is constantly throwing lessons my way. But recently, God has been impressing upon me my ability to choose. Now, as we all know, we don't always get to choose our situations or our circumstances. Often, we don't get to choose where we will end up or even the direction.

But, I've found that we DO get to choose who we will be. We get to choose how we act and how we react. Essentially, we get to choose whether we will live or not live. Now I know what you are thinking: Christy, that sounds kind of dramatic! What do you mean, "choose to live or not to live." I'm saying: It's easy to embrace life and truly live when we find ourselves in circumstances that we chose and that make us happy. We love life and live it when we are around our friends and people we truly like. But what happens when we find ourselves in places we didn't choose...around people we would never choose to be around?

Sometimes, in these cases, I find myself tempted to just, in a sense, stop living. Instead of engaging in the world around me, I mentally and emotionally stand still. I may mope, or sulk, or stop doing what I normally enjoy doing. Or, I might go through the motions, all the while being paralyzed on the inside...all because I have found myself in a place where I didn't choose to be.
But THAT is not what our Father intended for me! Jesus very clearly said, "I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) When I think about it, I really DO want to live life - and live it "to the full." Even when things don't make sense, I still get to choose to live life. Even when I find myself somewhere doing something I never thought I would be doing, I still get to choose to live life. Even when God takes my life in a direction that I would have never suspected, I still get to choose to live life.
And it's funny, I have found that when I make the conscious decision to "live life," God chooses to live in amazing ways through me!

Christy Pritchard
{Christy has been married to Michael for two years in August, is Admissions Counselor for Mississippi College, Conference Coordinator for Get Real Ministries, and teaches 11th grade girls in Bellevue Student Ministry. }