Which Life Do You Want?

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God . . . Deuteronomy 11:26-28

No one wants to live this way. I can clearly remember the despair in his voice as he described his life of addiction. He was homeless, destitute, in and out of jail, suffering from untreated illnesses, and had alienated himself from his entire family. Despite all the destruction his addiction had caused him, he couldn’t stop using. If I’d have asked him if he wanted a life of sobriety or addiction, he’d have absolutely said he wanted to be sober. When, however, it came to choosing to do the things that led to recovery, he remained unwilling or incapable. Hell no. I’m not going to treatment again. And that was the problem. He wanted recovery. That was a simple choice. The difficulty lay in doing all the things it took to find recovery. That was the hard part.

I’ve been there. If, 20 years ago, you’d have asked me if I wanted the blessing that came with a life of following God, I’d have said, Yes. Absolutely. The problem though, was that I still wanted to follow me. So, I did. This eventually led to the disaster of my addiction. In the misery of my addiction, I wanted sobriety. For a long time though, I remained unwilling to do what it took to get there. It was only in losing everything that I finally understood my choice. I could experience a cursed life or I could experience a blessed life. Of course I wanted a blessed life, but it was only in the utter disaster that I became willing to do what it took to abandon my way. It was only in that loss that I became willing to follow God.

This is the choice Moses lay before his people in today’s passage, and it’s the choice that lies before us every day. Which life do we want? Do we want the life for which we were created, finding authentic joy and peace? Of course we do. Our problem is not that we don’t desire the life God intends. That’s the easy part. Our problem is that we usually remain unwilling to abandon our way for God’s, doing what it takes to experience the blessed life. That’s the hard part. Daily, the choice is ours. We can follow our will or we can abandon our will to follow God’s. The results will be predictable – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse . . .