A couple days ago a friend said that I absolutely had to read The Choice by Og Mandino. Immediately. So I borrowed it. The book was published in 1984, which means that it is not a new book. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything since a lot of modern books are rubbish, and the fictional plot complained about the same thing 25 years ago when it was published (which is not too surprising). The story begins almost immediately with the achievements of an insurance salesman in a blossoming career. He is literally weeks away from becoming one of the senior VPs of the large company that he works for when Father’s Day interrupts his weekly routine. He realizes that his sons are growing up and he is missing it. Like so many stories of the same type, he resigned almost immediately and moved into the country to become an author. This is where the story makes itself out to be unique. The main character, a man named Mark Christopher, is a self-help book fanatic. It was through reading them that he learned to be the best at sales and management for his former occupation. He takes that knowledge and writes his own book. As the main character struggles to publish his manuscript and then succeeds, The Choice covers many of the real issues that have to be faced. It did not end when Mark’s book became a best-seller but instead probed even more deeply into the heart of matters, asking:

He [a man Mark Christopher was visiting and respected] waved at the newspapers on the coffee table. "Even now, as you and I talk, people are killing each other in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Namibia, Chad, Guatemala, Lebanon, El Salvador, and Ethiopia -- not to mention all the other terrible crimes that take place, daily, in every city and town in the world. We steal from each other. We cheat on each other. We brutalize each other. We crawl over each other in our race for power, wealth, and fame. What good is it for believers like you and me to spell out a long list of success principles that we know will work, that we know will guide people to a better life if they follow them, when they can't even obey ten simple commandments. We light candles in the darkness, but we manage to attract only moths. So why should we try? Why should we make any attempt to rescue this human race that may not even be worth saving?"

These are quite the questions and there are a lot of small stories in circulation that are often used in reply. Life is hard but we have been given the ability to make it just a little more bearable for others. I have little hope that I, by myself, will change the world. But it isn’t the world that I have been called to change. It is a calling to aid in the lives of individuals instead. Throughout the book I was amazed at how much Mark Christopher attempted to point people to God with such a scant knowledge of Him. Near the end it was revealed to the man that because of the influence he had gained over others that his decisions had even more power before God than those of many other people. This is a wise warning for those who are teachers and leaders. He finally made a decision concerning his own life during a speech, though it took a while to get it situated in his own life:

Henceforth, each morning, I will awake and fall to my knees and give thanks to God for the gift that only He can bestow -- a new day.

Many other aspects of that final speech are stated at an extreme which I believe is balanced in Scripture. Most people in the “rat race” need the extreme arguments in it to jog them out of their complacency enough to see that they really do control much that happens in their lives. Won’t you do the same as Mark Christopher said in the above quote? Celebrate the life that we have been given. And, no, that is not the full meaning of “The Choice” from the title. You’ll have to read the book for yourself to find out what it is. One disclaimer since some of you do watch how language is used around you: The word “Damn” is abused several times in this book.