This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (Deut. 30:19).

A few years ago I was speaking on the biblical worldview at a round-robin conference in some colleges in Southern California. Having one morning free, I decided to rise early and go out to shoot some video for the Day of Discovery TV series on “The Wonder of Soil” I was working on. As I merged onto the freeway east toward the agricultural belt in the Coachella Valley, I had to veer to avoid being hit by a car going about a hundred miles an hour on a highway crammed with commuters. He was darting from lane to lane and taking advantage of the smallest openings, which forced many drivers to brake in order to avoid a collision. “How foolish to put life at risk like that,” was my thought.

I was not surprised, then, a half-hour later to find myself in a traffic jam—caused by the reckless driver. The demolished car of the speeder was already being put on a flatbed truck and emergency responders were working on an upside-down pickup. I have no idea if anyone died or was seriously injured in the crash—a crash that would never have happened if the driver had not made a decision to put life at risk—his and several others. But the incident did provide an illustration that was apropos for my worldview talk, which emphasized my conclusion that “life affirmation is the motivation principle to Christian ethics.”

Life sets Earth apart from all other known astronomical bodies. And life is itself such a mystery that for all the scientific studies of it over hundreds of years, its material origin and essence are still virtually unknown. Yet because it’s common and “normal” for we who reside on the only known living planet, we rarely grasp its true value. A cockroach living on Mars, on the other hand, would seem miraculous, and if one were found there by scientific probes, it would be the virtual golden fleece of secular science—which is always looking for a non-spiritual cause of life.  They do not accept the clear pronouncement about the origin of life in the Bible—that life comes from the Mind behind the “Big Bang,” the Spirit who brought it into existence, maintains it, and can take it away. It always amazes me that according to the Bible, God is called both life and light—which remain, for all our brilliance, perhaps the two primary mysteries for science. He is also love: the third great “L” mystery of human existence.

We do not know what life is, but conclude that it is such a rare and wonderful gift from God that the big threat in the Garden of Eden was the loss of life—especially human life. From beginning to end, the Scriptures emphasize that God wants us to live, and He takes pleasure in all things that live. And every moment of each day He gives us the opportunity to choose life in our decision-making: He wants us to choose what affirms life in everything we do: driving our cars, feeding ourselves, taking care of ourselves and those whose lives depends on us, and caring for the material creation upon which all life depends.

If you have a few quiet moments today, think about all the decisions that lie before you this Labor Day and ask yourself the question, “Which of the choices that lie before me most affirm the treasure of life?” Do I take that risk in traffic; do I eat this food or that; do I exercise or simply veg-out; do I let my children watch this TV program or that? Almost any choice that lies before us hour by hour can be weighed by the question, “which one is the most life-affirming?”

If you want to see this fleshed out in a more formal and theological way, and have not taken a look at RBC’s Biblical Worldview presentation, you might wish to click on the link here. Hopefully it will become clear to you why I have concluded that “life-affirmation is the motivating principle of Christian ethics.”  Click on the slide screen/full button at the bottom right to see it full screen.