I choose

I recently attended a funeral of a dear friend and young man. A real tragedy and sad day. One of the speakers, a good friend of the deceased shared his memories but he presented his comments in a unique fashion.

He framed all of his memories by saying “I choose to remember”. I choose to remember the deceased for this particular quality and proceeded to share an anecdote. He did this over and over again and it suddenly it hit me. He was not only saying these words but actually engaging in the act of choosing how he was going to remember.

Life deals us all kinds of external and internal challenges and it is always a choice how we respond. It is always a choice how we react.

In this week’s Torah portion, Korach sees an event and his jealousy is aroused. Instead of choosing to deal with his jealousy through engaging and trying to understand what he is witnessing, he chooses to rally the troops and rebel against Moses and in turn G-d.

Unfortunately, we become a victim to our own choosing. Our choosing becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. You want to see things negatively, then you’ll be negative. You choose to see things positively, you’ll be positive. As we see from Korach, his choice ultimately landed him swallowed by the ground.

Sometimes the choices aren’t a choice between right and wrong, but simply how you want to live your life. Always remember that the outcome is in your hand.

Granted, the challenges from within and from without can sometimes make the choosing very difficult. But we are assured from our Jewish teachings, that the potential is inside each of us to choose. Nothing can take that ability away from us.

I bless all of us, never to face difficult gut wrenching choices, but when the smaller choices come along or G-d forbid the difficult ones, I pray that we call on that inner reservoir to choose the right and good choice.