There is a story about a man whose house was caught in a flood.

As the waters rose he prayed, "God, please save me from this flood."

The waters continued to rise and soon it was up to his windows. As he glanced out of the window, a boat came by and the men in the boat called out for him to get in and be saved. The man refused, saying that God would save him.

The boat left and the waters got so high that the man had to climb up on his roof. A helicopter came by and offered to lift him to safety, but again the man refused and said that God would save him.

The helicopter left and the man drowned.

When he met St. Peter at the heavenly gates, the man asked why God had not saved him. St. Peter then said that God had sent a boat, then a helicopter to save him, but the man refused to cooperate in his own rescue.

Variations of this scenario are happening to people every day, and, like the man who prayed to be saved, many individuals expect God to save them from their life perils. Instead of waiting for God to do it for us, a wiser choice is for us to cooperate with God, as we know him to co-create a life that resonates with what we desire and deserve.

The old way of hoping that God will "save" us from pain and suffering is rapidly giving way to an evolutionary new approach to living.

Benjamin Franklin's saying that "God helps those who help themselves" synthesizes this basic idea into a new way of living. The old view was that God pre-determined our lives and that some lucky people were granted good lives while others were destined to live what Henry David Thoreau called "lives of quite desperation."

The new view is that our choices equal our consequences and, if we don't like the lives we have, we can make new empowered choices to create a better life.

This path allows everyone to have an equal opportunity to have a happy life. One of the greatest gifts from God is our freedom to choose again and again.

Seeing that our lives are not pre-determined but created by our choices gives us all a self-empowered position to be, do and have what we really want and value in our lives such as love, happiness and good health.

Remember, if you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten.

May you experience the potency of the idea that your choices do create your life consequences and may you be blessed with the peace and power that comes from embracing this path.

David Tasaka is a member of Unity Church of Hawaii. Expressions of Faith is a column that welcomes submissions from pastors, priests, lay workers and other leaders in faith and spirituality. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.