The Choice is Ours

As I write this, the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election is still undetermined. Like many, if not most of us, I was hoping for a clear decision on Election Day if only to relieve some of the tension of uncertainty.

I fully realize that it matters who we elect as our governmental leaders. They determine the laws and policies that affect our lives and the future of our society and our planet. It matters greatly.

Still, the outcome of the election does not determine how we will choose to live our daily lives. We are at choice. We decide how we will treat each other. We determine how we will care for the most vulnerable and underserved among us. We choose the actions we will take to respect and care for our environment and our Mother Earth. We decide who we will be and how we will live in alignment with love.

As Viktor Frankl said in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning,

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Each day, indeed each moment of every day, we must choose our own attitude and our own way of being in the world.

In alignment with that, I recently read a few posts on social media. I know, I would probably be better served to refrain from that. However, I read some comments that said something similar to, “It does not matter who wins the Presidential election. God is still in control.” I question that sentiment because it seems to be an abdication of responsibility.

In I John 4: 7-8, we read,

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

In my understanding, God is the unconditioned infinite energy of love – the life energy that connects us to each other and with all creation. Love is the energy that heals, harmonizes, and unifies. God, as Love, exists in the realm of perfect potential and possibility and must be brought into demonstration through us.

However, we continue to war against each other and still proclaim, “God is in control.” We continue to ignore the hungry, hurting, and homeless among us and still declare, “God is in control.” We continue to pollute our environment and rape the Earth and still say, “God is in control.” We continue to disenfranchise those who are not of our tribe, whether that be our race, nationality, or religion, and still decry, “God is in control.”

As Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore stated,

 “God is the love in everybody and everything. God is love; [humans] become loving by permitting that which God is to find expression in word and act…The point to be clearly established is that God exercises [God’s] attributes through the inner consciousness of the universe and [humankind].”

God is not in control unless and until we make conscious choices every day to surrender to the love that is God and allow that love to guide our every thought, word, and action.

My prayer for each of us and for our world is that we will make choices in the ways we think, speak and act that embody love. Yes, the outcome of this election will determine who leads our government, but no election has the power to determine who we are, what we stand for, or how we choose to be in the world. The choice is ours!