April 6, 2005

Choice

MnJzBd It is said that choice is the driving force of capitalism. But the pros can’t make up their minds whether it’s best to have more choice or less. Despite all the problems in choosing, free marketeers argue that the more choice the better. They say it builds character.

I agree. And I suspect Reinhold Niebuhr might agree, as well. For his ever-present “Serenity Prayer,” despite its name, is really about choices and the changes that always demand them. Change and choice are the twin jewels on which our spiritual maturity turns and maybe even grows, so that that prayer of Niebuhr’s is a natural even for those who aren’t all that prayerful.

The measure of our spiritual maturity resides in how secure we are in responding to and effecting change. God creates us in God’s image, that is, God’s grace imagines us into being who we are and gives us freedom to choose. Niebuhr’s prayer simply asks God for the serenity, the courage, and the wisdom to accept his creation as it comes down our path. All three are characteristics of being human as God imagines human being.

Ernest Hemingway defined courage as “grace under pressure,” maybe like the choice way in which God gives it.

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