To start things off, a quote from R.R. Reno's commentary on Genesis (page 52, commenting on Gen. 1:3):
"God creates everything for the sake of his plan, for the sake of the triumph of light. And because God's purposes are invincible, the only way to opt out of the future for which God creates is to somehow embrace nonexistence, to leap across the edge that separates the original light from the empty darkness it illuminates. This turns out to be the strange, self-defeating, dark desire of evil. There are ultimately only two futures, one real and the other an odd, impossible, invisible shadow of the real." (emphasis mine)
The reason this passage stood out to me so much is that whenever I try to turn away from God, which usually start by trying to find my own way to happiness, I find I am caught in self-destruction and the only logical conclusion is non-existence. When I am pouting and throwing my own grown-up version of my two year-old's temper-tantrums by (for one example) refusing to forgive someone, I am so set on wanting things my way that I reject everything else, even happiness, goodness, and life.
It reminds me of Moses' words to Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19-20: "This day I call the heavens and the 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 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
I want to choose life, to choose to work for and hope for and trust in the triumph of God's light.
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