I believe he chooses us, rather than we choose him. I also believe that, once His, our “experience” with Him grows and we increase in knowledge as well as the blessings being His brings.
But salvation, itself, is, for us, the simplest part. Afterward we do the work, not to be saved, but because we want to please him. And some days we do well, and others not so well. It’s a growth process, and separate from salvation itself.
FWIW, I see the unsaved as “NPC’s” - Non Player Characters in a video game. They are the “Natural man” and basically animals. And all of the saved were once NPC’s. We still live in that natural man, with all of it’s necessary desires (e.g. the need for food) that can be exploited and bring sin, but the “spiritual man” that occupies that meat is born of God and has acquired “life everlasting.
We are much in agreement.
The upcoming period of tribulation is to create suffering in order to turn people toward God. People like to think they are incontrol, until bad things start to happen.
Tribulation forces the ego to surrender and make room for God. At a lower level it is horrible, but if you rise up above it and see its purpose, it is wonderful. That is what rapture is. Merely being raised up in consciousness. As a neuroscience researcher, I can explain this process in medical and scientific terms.
It is much more difficult to experience by walking the walk than having the knowledge and merely talk the talk.