During 1997 as the world focused on the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, another significant passing went almost unnoticed. Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl died on September 2 at the age of 93.

During World War II, Dr. Frankl was imprisoned at Auschwitz, where he was stripped of his identity as a medical doctor and forced to work as a common laborer. His father, mother, brother, and wife died in the concentration camps. All his notes, which represented his life's work, were destroyed. Yet Frankl emerged from Auschwitz believing that "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."

We may not be able to choose our circumstances, but we can choose our attitude toward them. The apostle Paul gave us an example of how this works. He wrote, "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content . . . . I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:11,13). Whatever our circumstances may be, we can draw on the power of Christ for the strength to face them.

We always have a choice--and that choice will always make a difference.  — David C. McCasland