Ever had a life-changing event? An event that impacts you to such a degree that there’s no way back. An event that ‘wrecks’ you. What was normal is gone, and what’s now normal is something entirely new.

I used to think those events were confined to third-world mission trips, war zones and other far-away situations. I never imagined you could be ‘wrecked’ in one of the western world’s most vibrant cities, home to a multi-billion-dollar film industry and over a hundred thousand millionaires. But you can.

A few years ago, I was in Los Angeles for a conference. We stayed in a £350-a-night hotel. Ensconced in my funky room with big TV, aircon, jacuzzi and a bunch of other stuff I neither needed nor used, overlooking offices of major banks and corporations, surrounded by trendy bars and restaurants, life was normal.

But it didn’t stay normal for long. Because LA is a city of extremes.

Extreme wealth and extreme poverty.

Extreme happiness and extreme despair.

Over 126,000 millionaires and over 50,000 homeless.

I knew the statistics. I’d seen the pictures and watched the films. But knowing statistics, seeing pictures and watching films did not prepare me for seeing those extremes right before my eyes.

Just a two-minute coach ride from my hotel room was a reality that, when I encountered it, hit me with such force that it left me reeling for days. Maybe even weeks. A reality my brain couldn’t fully process.

And what my brain couldn’t process broke my heart.

As we passed through a shanty town of tents and shopping trolleys spreading down the pavement, it took a moment to realise what I was seeing. A town of people whose homes were on the streets. This was Skid Row.

I’d heard the stories about Skid Row. But stories were nothing compared to reality. With over 5,000 people wandering its streets by day, and over 10,000 huddled in its corners by night, this was a meeting point for everything broken in our world.

As we drove to our conference venue, my mind was overloaded with the story around me. A story of brokenness, pain, despair, loss, hardship, persecution, injustice, unfairness, and hopelessness.

Watching a woman forage a bin for food, inspecting cast-aside chicken wings to salvage something that would take away her hunger, my heart began to weep for a city 5,000 miles from my own, for which I could do nothing to help.

In that moment, something inside me broke.

I was wrecked.

So why share this with you? Not to burden or depress you, but because I want you to take hold of two simple facts that were brought sharply into focus by that experience.

First, your temporary circumstances do not have to define your permanent reality.

Wherever you find yourself right now does not have to be where you find yourself forever. However insignificant or overwhelmed you may feel, the place you find yourself today does not have to define your ultimate destination.

Which brings me to the second thing: the reason your ultimate destination does not have to be defined by your present place is because you always have a choice.

You can choose to engage or walk away. You can choose to fight or declare defeat. You can choose to be the hero, or fade into the shadows of your story.

It may not always feel like it, but you really do always have a choice to make tomorrow different from today.

Take hold of those two facts, and go write the future you want to live.