“Remember, you have the power to choose.”

Those words landed in my spirit immediately and lingered even longer. Not only are those words true, but somehow pressure and pace have a way of making us forget that very power.

There have been so many moments when I’ve felt the pressure to respond, react, or decide quickly. It’s almost as if I momentarily forget that I have the power to choose. Sometimes it feels like the world has subconsciously taught me that I don’t have a choice. Sometimes it’s like my first choice is simply believing I don’t have one.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve caught myself saying, “Well, I guess I don’t really have a choice.” What I’ve found is that I usually mean I don’t like the choices in front of me. But the absence of an easy choice doesn’t mean the absence of a choice.

Life isn’t just happening to us. It’s forming us. This is why remembering we have the privilege of choosing matters so much.

By no means am I saying that I will always choose wisely, but I can choose with intention. When I hold choosing and intention together, I realize that simply intending to remember I have the power to choose is already more than half the battle.

But what about my power to choose?

Here is the beautiful thing that I discovered, the reason we have the power to choose is because choice itself is a privilege.

Choosing isn’t always easy, but I’d rather choose difficulty than to settle. I’d rather choose the possibility of failure than the fear of never trying. Somewhere inside those choices, I always seem to meet a new version of myself. I can’t always choose what life places in front of me, but I can choose who I’m becoming as I walk through it.

This thought eventually led me to other people. One of the greatest acts of love is respecting another person’s ability to choose, even when they choose differently than I would.

I can honor my own convictions while honoring someone else’s dignity. For me, that’s the sweet spot. That balance has me slowly changing the way I speak to people.

That subtle shift changes everything, because that’s where I find honor and freedom. I’m slowly releasing responsibility for other people’s choices while fully embracing responsibility for my own.

Eventually, my faith connected the dots. God’s first gift to humanity wasn’t provision. It wasn’t purpose. It wasn’t even the Garden. It was choice. From the very beginning, love wasn’t coerced; it was chosen. Relationship wasn’t forced; it was invited.

Even God, who certainly has the power to control, consistently gives people the dignity of responding to Him. Choice isn’t a flaw in God’s design, it’s one of the highest expressions of it.

Looking back, I understand why those words hit so hard. In that moment, they were encouragement to hold a pose a little longer. Later, they became a reminder every single day, in countless ordinary moments, I have the privilege of choosing. 

Those words also brought me back to something I sometimes forget to be grateful for: waking up. Every morning that I open my eyes is a gift. Life itself is a gift and within that gift, God has given us another one, the gift of having the privilege to choose.

Every experience becomes another opportunity to trust the Creator with what He created. You chose to read this post, and I hope that today you choose the things that ultimately lead you toward peace. If it just so happens that they don’t, I hope you remember this:

But as long as today has been given to you, there’s almost always one thing no circumstance can completely take from you:

Your next choice. Start there.

I love you, but God loves you more.

In courage,

Carnell