Choose Life

Recently, Lamonte McIntyre was freed from prison after serving 23 years for a crime he did not commit. In an interview with the Kansas City Star, he was asked, “Do you have any concerns? You spent more time in prison that when you were free.” McIntyre replied, “I have no reservations about life. I fear not living more than I fear living. So I’d rather choose to live.”

Most of us would probably say we don’t fear living, but our actions speak otherwise. Any time we avoid others who are different from us, resist promptings of the Spirit that will disrupt our comfortable lives, or refuse to face our shortcomings, we are demonstrating that we fear life. Humans generally seem to prefer that life be contained, predictable, and safe—and then, on our deathbeds, we are filled with regrets that we did not love more freely, play more frequently, and notice the wonders of the earth more readily.

In the book of Deuteronomy, we are offered a choice: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then that you and your descendents may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding God’s voice, and holding fast to God.” Lamonte McIntyre held fast God for 23 years, and upon being released from prison, he has chosen life: “I want to enjoy my journey. I want to stop and smell the roses. I don’t want to rush through life. I don’t want to take nothing for granted.” We, who are in prisons of our own making, can also find freedom by loving God and heeding God’s voice; we too can fear not living more than we fear living, and choose life.