Choose love every time

As viewers pick the ending of Netflix’s Choose Love, Lyn Woods considers how we make decisions as Christians.

Choose Love is an interactive romantic comedy film, newly released on Netflix, in which the viewer can decide the ending. Initially from this description I expected to be making only one decision towards the end of the film, when in fact I would be making a series of two-option decisions throughout, culminating in a final choice. If the viewer opts not to answer any question, then the choice is made for them.

The film is centred around Cami, a recording engineer, who appears to have everything but still feels something is missing. Cami begins to reassess her life, after unwisely consulting a psychic, and her choices thereafter are up to the viewer. Whichever way is chosen by the viewer, I suspect the outcome isn’t disastrous for Cami in this PG-rated interactive experience, whereas our reality is often very different.

We must wisely turn to Scripture to fully understand the Christian method for our basic everyday and life-changing decision-making. Unsurprisingly, there is only one recommended way – to lean on the Lord and seek his direction! Proverbs 3:5 and 6 are very clear on this, stating: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take’ (New Living Translation). This message is echoed in many of the psalms and in the Gospels and letters found in the New Testament. In Ephesians 5:15–17, Paul warns: ‘Be careful how you live… Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do’ (NLT).

If we disregard this advice and unwisely make choices according to our own free will and plans, we are setting ourselves up for hard times ahead, full of doubt and hindsight self-questioning.

It’s really very simple: do we trust our limited human understanding, choosing from our self-formed options, or listen to and follow the guidance of a divine, all-knowing, all-seeing God who loves and cares for each of us intimately and has a plan for our lives?

Our lives are the interactive reality. What we see on television and the internet is not always as it first appears – it can’t be relied upon, we can’t have confidence or certainty in its authenticity, but we can trust in the one true God who never deceives us and wants the best for his children.

It never occurs to Cami that the feeling she is missing out on life and love could be satisfied by a loving, salvation-giving relationship with a heavenly Father, and that everything else intended for her would naturally follow. Life in all its fullness, as Jesus promised in John 10:10.

It is helpful to reflect on the words of ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’ (SASB 456), a hymn of prayer that asks God to reclothe us in our rightful mind and take from our souls the strain and stress of life. He can do that as our saviour and shepherd if we commit our lives and our pathway to him in prayer, choosing love in every decision and action.

Reflect and respond

• Are you seeking God’s will for your life or trying to follow your own path?
• How can you learn to lean on the Lord more in your life?
• Reflect on the words of song 795 in the Army songbook: 

O what peace we often forfeit, 
O what needless pain we bear, 
All because we do not carry 
Everything to God in prayer!