I’ve often thought a good measure of a person’s character is how they treat the free sample people at Costco. People just walk up, grab their toothpicked gouda, and walk on without even looking at the person who prepared it. If it’s a good sample, they send in family members to get seconds or thirds. I can’t even fathom asking them to take a moment and say, “thank you.”

This weekend’s Responsorial Psalm (117) says, “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”

And I know.

It is difficult to go out to all the world and tell the Good News. You might make some one uncomfortable. It might be your husband, wife, or children. It will probably be you. You might have someone tell you to “get lost!” You might have to quit your job. You might lose some Facebook friends or followers on Twitter or Instagram. (God forbid!)

What if you lived in eastern Ukraine right now? War, bullets, and violence all around you? You’ve been told to lock yourself and your loved ones in your home. Ignore what you hear on the other side of those four walls. Resist the urge to despair. You will be alright if you wait. Just wait. Someone will be coming to evacuate you. When that moment comes, don’t hesitate. Just follow.

You can make great choices—like reading this message or my new novel, A Life of No Coincidence (available online wherever books are sold!). And you can make poor choices—like driving on the wrong side of the road for a week or eating kale. The point is… you have free will.

Did you know other members of your family have free will, as well? And they can use that free will to make great choices or catastrophic decisions.