Choices

We live in a world that values choice. Choice about the kind of car we drive, house we live in, choice about our education and career, we even have choices in the design of our cell phones. We often delude ourselves into thinking that we are the ones who are making the choice, when the reality is someone else or a group has chosen for us and convinced us that their choice is really our choice. Call it advertising, image spin or influence, we are subject to those we convince ourselves are the best choice. So based on our choices, we divide ourselves and oppose those who make different choices than us. In the midst of our fighting,(just listen to people of opposing parties politically or denominational) along comes this crazy teacher and says: You did not choose me, I choose you . . . and our world of choice is shaken. We resist and rebel this dynamic. We invent theological concepts to appease our understanding of someone else making the choice for us, and like most things we usually get it wrong. Why is it so hard to have the Rabbi Jesus at the center of our world rather than ourselves? Why do we resist the God in flesh Rabbi coming to us and choosing us? Why are we so bent on making life about us? I guess it comes down to our choice in Who we follow.