Jerry was the kind of guy some people just did not like. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone asked him how he was doing, he replied, "If I were any better, I would be twins." He was a unique manager because he had several waiters that followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was due to his positive attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry told the employee how to look for the positive side of the situation.

Seeing his style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it. You can't be a positive person all the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today: you can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or a bad mood. The bottom line is, it is your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what Jerry said, and soon afterward, I left the restaurant business to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him, and I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later I heard that Jerry did something that you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business. He left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Fortunately, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to a local trauma center. After eighteen hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullet still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I would be twins." Then, he said, "Do you want to see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door. Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die, and I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room, I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and the nurses, and I got really scared. In their eyes I read, 'He's a dead man; He's not going to make it.' So I knew that I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

He said, "Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me. And she asked if I was allergic to anything." 'Yes,' I replied, and the doctors and nurses all stopped working and waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and said, 'Bullets.' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I'm choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.' " Jerry lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Friend, we have a choice concerning how we live each day. We can choose to be a happy Christian or we can choose to be depressed. Many people walk around feeling as though they are being cheated out of life because they are Christians. They need to walk closer to God. We can't control some circumstances in life, but thank God, we can control how we react to each situation.

The man named Jerry in the story chose to live, and his positive attitude allowed him to do that. The same applies to us. The attitude we take in everything will determine whether we live or die spiritually. Thank God, the Word of God can lift us and help us to maintain the right attitude necessary to press on. We may be going through a time in life where we feel depressed, but the Word of God can encourage us.