Midweek Musing- January 28, 2026

For a number of years, I listened to Leticia Cline who was principal of Boston Elementary, where my girls attended, and also my boss, end the morning announcements with a simple line: “Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours.”

To this day, my girls and I sometimes still shout it as we head out the door.

I thought about that this last weekend when I came across the following quote from Henry Ward Beecher. He once wrote, “God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.”

That seems to fit well with Ms. Clines admonition to us each day,

Now as I was thinking about all of this I realized I spend a lot of time and energy wishing I could renegotiate the terms of my life, so my choices were easier.

I think all of us have probably been there.

We wish we could edit our circumstances.

We wish we could subtract the ache, quiet the anxiety, rewrite the mistakes, or fast-forward through the grief.

But of course, life doesn’t work like that. It arrives like a gift placed in our hands. And sometimes it’s wrapped beautifully, sometimes it’s wrapped in struggle, but it is a gift given by our Creator all the same.

And that’s where Scripture meets us with a gentle but steady truth: we may not get to choose how many todays we have… but we do get to choose what we do with them.

Paul talks about this very idea in his letter to the church at Ephesus.

“Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time…” (Ephesians 5:15–16)

Notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Make the most of the time if your current circumstances are easy.”

He doesn’t say, “Make the most of the time if you feel ready.”

Or make the most of the time when you feel like it.

He simply says, be careful how you live.

The deepest spiritual question isn’t only, “What is happening to me?”

It’s, “Who will I trust and how will I live in the middle of it?”

Or put more directly, “Will I let Christ be Lord of how I respond?”

And that’s where both service and gratitude come in. Because the faithful response of people who recognize this life is a gift, is to use that gift in service to others as an offering of gratitude to God.

Now gratitude is not pretending everything is fine. Gratitude is the defiant decision to notice what is good, holy, and possible.

It’s choosing to see your relationships, your daily bread, your small mercies, your very breath not as a guarantee, but as a gift of grace.

And then as I read recently, service is what gratitude does with its hands.

When you recognize you have received a life you didn’t earn, you start looking for ways to give yourself away not out of guilt, but out of love.

It’s why Jesus’ path is always moving outward to others. Moving toward the overlooked, the hurting, the excluded, the weary.

Jesus didn’t merely “have a life.” He spent it - indeed he poured it out, turning his life into the world’s blessing ever.

And friends, that is the call for us, as well.

You may not get to choose your circumstances this week.

You may not get to choose what news lands in your inbox, what diagnosis shows up, what conflict flares up, what fatigue settles in.

But you can choose how you live your life in the midst of it.

You can choose to show up with kindness instead of cynicism.

You can choose to bless someone instead of being consumed by what you lack.

You can choose to serve in small, quiet ways that no one applauds but heaven notices.

You can choose to say “thank you” to God for the strength you have, and ask for help where you struggle.

Because the Christian life is not simply about surviving the days we are given.

It’s about stewarding them.

So, here is a question worth us each considering.

What would it look like to use the life we each have right now just as it is in service and gratitude?

Not the life we wished we had.

Not the life we hope we might have someday.

Maybe it looks like a text message to someone who’s lonely.

Maybe it looks like doing the next right thing with patience.

Maybe it looks like volunteering, forgiving, praying, showing up, listening.

Maybe it looks like refusing to let pain and hurt make you hard.

And maybe it begins with a simple prayer:

“God, thank you for the gift of today. I can’t choose whether I have life but with your help, I can choose how I live it. So use me. Send me.”

Because that really is the choice.

Not whether we have life.

But how we will live it.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.