So the choosing is not of God then. God doesn't get a chance to choose us, unless we choose Him. Why must you diminish God?
How does that 'diminish' God if it is God's will that it be so?
It may not be the way a Calvinist would handle Sovereignity, but God is not bound with man's view on His rule.
Who would ever imagined a sovereign God washing his disciples feet?
Please save your voices of outrage over God's sovereign control for someone else.
God is in total control.
Even you Calvinists have to use the terms directive and Permissive will.
The difference is for the Calvinists they are only meaningless terms meant to hide the fact that God is the one responsible (according to the logic of Calvinism) for all good and bad in the Universe.
While we non-Calvinists accept that God has indeed have both wills in operation, and His overall will will be done by combining both, despite the fact that there are actions being done that God would have preferred not happen (like sin and evil)
What glorifies God is that He is able to handle both, not by a simple statement, but by dying so that His creation can live.
Creation was 'finger work' for God, Redemption was 'arm-work'.