It's My Choice
We certainly hear a lot of talk these days about individual rights and our freedom of personal choice. Of course personal choice is nothing new. In fact the Bible establishes the concept of personal choice pretty early in the narrative when Adam and Eve are given a choice about which fruit to eat. A little later in the Biblical narative we find Joshua compelling the Hebrew people to "Choose this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15 NRSV) Clearly, God does not coerce. One of the overwhelming witnesses of scripture is the great truth that God always gives us a choice. At times those choices God puts in front of us may be pretty profound, life or death, sin or forgiveness, love or hate, but choices none-the-less. Today we hear a lot of commotion when it comes to personal choice in many differing arenas; however, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting controversies over masking and vaccinations have brought these conversations to an entirely different level. It is not