The Places We Choose

Daily Gratitude Year 7-Day 202: Today, I am grateful for the places we choose to stay.

I heard a new quote today:
"You have to pick the places you don't walk away from." — Joan Didion

Read it again:
"You have to pick the places you don't walk away from." 
That is serious business. 

Sometime, it is so much easier to leave. To walk away and wash your hands of the entire mess. Still, there are times we know we must choose to stay. To walk through the hard and come out the other side. 

Walking through the fires of life is not easy, but it is refining. We were never, ever promised the path would be easy; we were promised we would never be alone. 

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:20 

Always. 

I can't help but think of Jesus when he faced the cross. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew the cross was ahead of him. He knew his friends would fail him. He knew there would be pain, suffering and times he felt alone. He knew offering his life in service and in sacrifice would change everything. 

He chose the place he would not walk away from. From the Upper Room... to Gethsemane ... to the kangaroo court where he was convicted of a crime he didn't commit... to the cross on a hill known as Golgotha to pay for the sins that were not his own.

We have to pick the places we don't walk away from. Even when the path is hard. Even when the fires are burning. Even when it seems hope is lost. We are never alone.

Today, I am grateful for the places we choose to stay.