Crossroads

Why do we idolize our choices? Agonize over every decision, make much ado over the act of deciding? Crossroads, forks, unmarked doors, candy shops, all the metaphors for choice and choosing. So many movies about choice and consequence, about what happens when you make one choice versus what happens when you make another. Do we really think it's so simple, our lives so linear, that one can trace different paths so neatly from their trailheads? "Choosing not to choose is still a choice." How many times have I heard that, passed off as wisdom?

Our obsession with choice is nothing more than our need to exert our will, to demonstrate in the act of choosing the fact that we were born and blessed with free will. I don't downplay the importance of the gift. God gave us free will so that we could choose to love Him, or choose to turn away from Him. Souls turn on the choice. But nevertheless, free will does not make us God, and our choices are not the fabric of our lives. Our choices are not the meaning. Love is more than a decision, even if it starts there.