What will you have?

Religious Views, by Delisa Renideo

Richard Bach is one of my favorite authors. You may remember him from his first book, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," or later, "Illusions." I have been rereading another of his great books, entitled "One." I read the following passage about midnight a couple of nights ago, and it has been running through my mind ever since.

"We can have excuses, or we can have health, love, longevity, understanding, adventure, money, happiness. We design our lives through the power of our choices. We feel most helpless when we've made choices by default, when we haven't designed our lives on our own."

I realize how often I make excuses to myself for what I don't get done. I justify not getting to some of my most important goals because of all the daily responsibilities that fill my calendar and my life. But now I keep hearing the refrain, "I can have excuses or I can have _____." It's amazing how that little refrain has helped me get to and complete some intentions that have repeatedly been bumped aside by things less important.

With our New Year's Resolutions still fairly fresh in our minds, this is a perfect time to put them in the context of this uncomfortably direct statement. Fill in the blanks to match your own goals: "I can have excuses or I can be at my ideal weight." "I can have excuses or I can have a clean house." "I can have excuses or I can have a regular time of meditation." "I can have excuses or I can be out of debt." "I can have excuses or I can speak my truth in love." I can have excuses or I can have control of my emotions." "I can have excuses or I can be successful."

We truly do design our lives through the power of our choices. The amazing thing is that these choices are mostly made up of little details that we don't even think about as a choice. It is a choice what food I put in my mouth. It is a choice how I spend the half hour before I fall asleep. Every book we read is a choice, every movie we watch, every conversation with every person … and every one of these choices, added together, creates our life.

We often look back on our lives and recognize we have made some good choices and some poor choices. But most of us only think about the big choices: the men or women we married, the jobs we worked at, the major purchases … We usually don't think about how three hours of watching TV each evening is a choice that uses up 1,095 hours in a year, the equivalent of 46 days. We don't think about the $3.50 latt/ we buy every day on our way to work costing us a total of $910 in a year. It is these little choices that often sabotage our intentions.

I'm tired of my own excuses. I'm ready to hold myself accountable for all my choices, including the smallest ones. I know that God can only do for me what God can do through me. And the only thing standing between me and all the good I can imagine is me.

Thank you, Richard Bach!

Delisa Renideo is the Spiritual Leader of Unity Church of the Valley in Wasilla. The church's Web site is www.unitychurchofthevalley.org. She can be reached at 373-1526.