Confronting the Anxiety of Choice
A blog post by John Miller
Submitted August 13, 2011
David Mamet in his book The Secret Knowledge on the Dismantling of American Culture makes an insightful observation:
“The Jews were led through the Sea of Reeds and, in the desert, complained, and wished to return to Egypt and slavery. Life in Egypt was by no means perfect; its only attraction was the absence of the necessity of choice. But it made all people equal. No slave need choose between good and evil, morality and immorality, all such anxiety had been usurped by or surrendered to the masters” (p. 51).
By contrast God famously declared “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy:30:19I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:). Therein God expresses both his desire that man live a blessed life and the utter impossibility of the absence of choice—not to choose is of itself a choice; usually a detrimental one.
Still the “anxiety of choice” has condemned generations to the servitude of slavery because choosing life was deemed too risky, too hard, or even unfair—“You shall not surely die. For God knows that…” (Genesis:3:4-5[4]And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:[5]For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.). Freedom is found by choosing truth over illusion, fact over fiction masquerading as truth, even when that choice yields challenge over immediate benefit—the land of promise filled with milk and honey first required a challenging trek in the wilderness.
“You shall know the truth,” Jesus promised, “and the truth shall set you free” (John:8:32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.). This is perhaps the most profound principle articulated by Christ. It is facing the often harsh realities of truth that ultimately leads to freedom. Still human nature would rather have us live in denial than enjoying the liberty confronting even harsh realities would bring—sticking our head in the proverbial sand while exposing our backside is not only embarrassing to those around us but makes progress impossible because the sand in which we believe to hide has us stuck; constrained only by our own foolish choice to bury our head.
The Apostle John suggests an amazingly simple formula—Fess Up and find freedom: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John:1:9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.).
What is so hard about that? The same irrational anxiety of choice that caused the infamous Israelites to perish in the wilderness.
Let’s choose life by confronting even the harsh realities of truth so that we may enjoy both liberty and life.
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