Decisions

Everything we do flows from a decision we make. Though we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking we just won’t make a decision on the question at hand…in reality, we just did. We decided not to decide. And that, in itself, is a decision. And that decision not to decide can cause other people to make their own decisions in ways that can alter the options we had when we decided not to decide. Everything we do flows from a decision we make.

Sometimes we blame things on fate, coincidence, or happenstance that ultimately were a product of decisions we made. Why do I weigh too much? Did I accidentally consume all those bags of Doritos? Was it coincidence or just my lot in life that I never stepped on a treadmill or rode a bicycle? Isn’t it odd that some of us are plagued repeatedly by things that make us late? For some reason outside forces line up in the cosmos every morning to make me late to work. Is that a fact?

Is it possible that I DECIDED to hit the snooze button two or three times? Is it possible that I DECIDED to linger over that second cup of coffee? Can it be that last night I DECIDED to stay up late to watch that TV show. Can it be that I DECIDED to open the Doritos or avoid the gym? Everything we do flows from a decision we make.

Notice I didn’t say everything that HAPPENS to us flows from a decision we make. Of course, unfortunate things beyond our control but within the sovereignty of God occur, independent of a direct decision we made. The car that comes from nowhere and broadsides ours in the intersection is proof that we can be victims of someone else’s careless decision making.

However, regardless of the physical circumstances in life, how we respond to events out of our control and even tragic in nature comes back to our own decision. Jewish psychologist Victor Frank was abused, tortured, and lost his family in the concentration camps at the hands of the Nazi's. Yet he wrote in his book "Man's Search for Meaning":
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms --- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Even in the midst of being victimized, we can still decide.

So, what’s the point? Some of us spend more time deciding which club to use on the 18th fairway, or which show to watch on our TIVO, than we do pausing and considering the decisions that have impact for years, decades, a lifetime, even eternity. This illusion of small, misplaced choices and decisions is insidious. Because each one seems so minor we miss the “compounding” nature of each choice until one day our “account” is flush with the sad results of all the poor decisions plus interest!

So what will it be? Are you and I going to drive or give someone else the wheel? Jelly doughnuts or the treadmill…which is it? Are we going to choose whether to waste our time, talents, and influence or invest them? And what about eternity? In Joshua 24:15 Joshua says to the people: “…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Regardless of which way we go, everything we DO flows from a DECISION. The question is not WILL we decide but HOW WILL we decide?

Sunday May 24th we'll talk about "Something to Decide" in Sunday School at First Baptist Woodstock (Building B room 110) at 8:10 a.m. Join us!