I knew it to be true in my heart even before I heard it put into words. According to Stephen Covey, there are three constants in life: change, choice and principles.
Life is in a constant flux. It is forever changing. Nothing is permanent. Nothing ever stays the same. Wealth is fleeting. And any pain or suffering sooner or later also goes away. Fame is transitory. The celebrities of yesterday are gone and all but forgotten. Seasons come and go and time moves on relentlessly like a river seeking to reach to the sea. Everything changes all the time.
But in the midst of all the changes, one unchanging constant is my capacity to make a choice. No matter how difficult the situation I may find myself in, I always have a choice. Even in cases when I give up and say “I have no choice”; I still and always have a choice. In fact, to paraphrase Covey, the ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside myself will affect me.
How do I then constantly exercise my freedom to choose in a world of constant change? By basing my choices on constant and unchanging principles. In good times and in bad times, I will choose what is according to the Principle of Love. In times of plenty and in times of want, I will act according to the Principle of Generosity. In my relationships with others, I shall always be guided by the Principle of Mercy and Forgiveness.
All these principles ultimately come together in their one source: the Ultimate Principle. The Ultimate Principle in not some inanimate self-executing force at work in the universe. The ultimate principle is a person who relates to me in a personal manner. And He has revealed Himself to me, to us. In the fulness of time, He became like one of us and lived among us. Over the ages, in different places and to different people, He has revealed Himself as the God of Love, the God of Generosity, the God of Mercy and Forgiveness.
For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
Matthew 7:24-27