“In today’s world, famine, war, and epidemic are almost totally the outcome of human choices…”

A thought by Dallas Willard (2014-02-01) from his book, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ (p. 13). NavPress. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

God has given us the freedom of choice. I am free to choose what I eat, how much I exercise but I am not free from the consequences of those choices. Our choices have consequences whether for good of for bad. And our choices come from how our heart has been cultivated.

Dallas says, “Individual disasters, too, very largely follow upon human choices, our own or those of others. And whether or not they do in a particular case, the situations in which we find ourselves are never as important as our responses to them, which come from our ‘spiritual’ side. A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying ‘Why?’”

So our response also has a choice, do I wonder “why?” or do I do something about it? And our response shows a lot at what influences or cultivates our heart.

As Dallas says, “Accordingly, the greatest need you and I have— the greatest need of collective humanity— is renovation of our heart. That spiritual place within us from which outlook, choices, and actions come has been formed by a world away from God. Now it must be transformed.”

So will I chose to transform my heart?

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