random thoughts... My name is Aaron, sometimes called Max because it's my middle name. I recently married a beautiful woman who just so happens to be the love of my life.

We’re all born with huge capacities for good and evil. We all have both.

We all have hatred, adultery, lust, etc. in our hearts. It sits, simmers, and waits to be released. It plants itself and grows as life changes around us.

Yet we also have such great goodness in us. People love and care for a child they know may not live to see the next day. People fall in love. Beautiful sonnets, paintings, works of art, songs, and stories are written about people in love. Mercy and grace can be shown to even the most lowly, the most undeserving.

But how can we judge what’s good, great, and awesome without having the bad, flawed, and horrible to balance it with?

Do you know what I mean? What I’m trying to say?

I don’t, in any way, shape or form, condone evil. I hate oppression, bigotry, racism, and acts of malice. Would evil still exist without human beings? I’ve wondered this before. If the human race ceased to exist on this planet, would evil still be a tangible thing? Is it evil for a lion to kill the weak and helpless? Is it evil for any animal to take advantage of another animal? Honestly, I don’t think so.

I think they’re simply doing what they were designed to do: live. It’s not like they can go to the local supermarket and pick up a Sushi Special #9 for dinner. They can’t till the soil and grow their own produce either.

Someone once said that we should expect the world to be evil. That we shouldn’t be in shock when something tragic takes place. It is simply the world doing what it’s designed to do: sin.

Sin is alive and well in all of our hearts. Wickedness is always one choice away. How many of us have ever considered an act of evil? I have. But, being the normally sane people that we are, we stop ourselves. We don’t follow through with them. Why?

It’s because we, as human beings, have the capability of choosing between good and evil. We have the intrinsic right to choose for ourselves the decisions we make. We define good, evil, love, hate. We define right and wrong. These definitions are the foundation on which we make our choices. Is it bad if I eat this piece of chocolate? Is it good if I eat this vegetable? Is this right or wrong?

Beyond this, we have the choice to choose God. God offers a life of purpose beyond simply existing on this planet. It isn’t always easy. Sometimes it questions our comfort, motives, and decisions. But when your choices are between what the world offers and what God offers, I want to choose God.

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD”
Joshua 24:15

Once you make the decision for Christ, there are some things you can’t pick and choose.

“You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others. The same God who said, ‘Don't commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Don't murder.’ If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period.”
James 2:8-11

I don’t always make the best choices. I can be a rude, insensitive jerk. But I’ve made my ultimate decision. I’m going to follow God. I’m going to try to be a better example, a better reflection of who He is.

I’ve made my decision. Have you?