life chooses us

In our Western, and particularly American way of thinking, I think we think we choose the life that we lead. We choose the things we do. We choose whom to marry. We choose the jobs we have. But is this real? Do we?
Jesus said that we did not choose him but He chose us to go and bear fruit that would last.
He chose us.
And I am starting to think that this is true for all of life. So many forces and factors are in place that we really do not choose the life we live, but it chooses us. Or more likely, God chooses the life we live. He has put all these factors together that things are inevitable. Or mostly so. But I am not a fatalist; and I do think free will and sovereignty are both true. But God is more free than we are and our choices do have bounds; obviously.
But I could trace back the factors that lead to my becoming a teacher; and it seems rather inevitable to me that I did so. And yet I in some ways could wish I was a movie director, or a writer of books, or a pro athelete (although I did give my best try in one sport down that line and just didn't have enough God given attributes). But that is not where I am.
So, maybe the life we live chooses us, God chooses us and what we become, even though we are making choices all the way through.
Food for thought.

don;t go there

This is my short rant about not using t-shirts to promote Christianity. They just don't work. Why not? Because they are inappropriate for the message. The medium DOES NOT fit the message. Jesus and who He is and what He has done for humanity cannot be contained very easily in a slogan or picture that fits on a shirt. There might be a few that are OKAYish, but that would be it. And using the slogans that have been used for other merchandise is simply in terrible taste. "This Bloods for you." Are you kidding me? Budweiser to sell Jesus to the masses! I don't think so. "His pain, your gain." AHHHHHHHH. I think that might be from Gold's gym, or just the saying No pain no gain. But it is idiocy at its highest and makes it no wonder non Christians would role their eyes at Christians. Yes, those ideas are true, but that is not how you promote them when they are timeless, eternal, supremely valuable truths; they just should not be promoted on a 3 (or 5) tone colored piece of cotton that fades over time and picks up sweat and stains from humans. It's like, only worse, carrying the Hope Diamond for sale in a sweaty jock strap. It does not work.
All I can say is, Christian, find another way to tell that truth you are wanting to promote!!!!

To give a different but related idea, it's why sex and human nudity so often does not work on the silver screen, but becomes pornographic or at least obscene. It is just very hard to portray such things that should remain off screen or off stage (which is what ob scene means) in a way or for a reason that does not cheapen them or the people watching. They are just too deep and powerful and intimate. One way that God saw fit to "image" such things in scripture is in the poetry of the book called Song of Songs. So there is a way to do it.

Another one that is highly questionable is the use of bumper stickers. It is just very hard to condense something very important to so short/small a medium, and further again this is something we are seeing fit to put on sticky paper on the back of a moving piece of metal. It seems to me that since it is Christians themselves that will be his witnesses, maybe we should be very careful about giving that responsibility over to something like a t-shirt or bumper sticker.