My friend Scott the youth pastor had a great talk in youth this week about choices and decisions. His point was this: your life in the end is made up of all the little seemingly insignificant decisions you make. He asked two questions:
Why do you make bad decisions/choices?
What helps you to make better decisions?
These two questions are a huge help to those of us trying to make decisions. Everything is about decisions! What should I do after high school? Who should I date? How many boxes of Lucky Charms can I buy without looking like a slob in the grocery store (small town problems)?
A Future of Possibility
The question I’d like to ask is “Why is it so hard to make good decisions?” The answer I think is straightforward; we don’t know the future. The emphatic army of professional predictors on ESPN and CNN prove why gambling is such a lucrative industry. The unknown future offers us only an indirect look with which to make our decisions.
This is a good thing. The old conundrum, “If you could know how your future would turn out, would you choose to know?” Most people choose to keep the future shrouded and unknown. Perhaps they themselves recognize the beautiful possibility of the future that bears down on our decisions, in which we venture in hope and trust that we make the correct one.
Many of the youth that heard Scott’s talk are setting out to make decisions that will alter their future in ways that no one, least of all themselves, can predict. This is not to say that some decisions aren’t better than others, they are. It is a reminder that there is an element of risk and unpredictability in all of our decisions. In the risk lies the possibility. When we attempt to eliminate risk we cannot help but eliminate possibility.
In the risk lies the possibility.
Not Making Decisions is Making a Decision
Scott also pointed out the dangers of procrastination. So many young people (and older people) simply choose not to choose. Choosing not to choose is actually making a choice. Not to choose!
Many prefer to suffer in the status quo rather than take a risk. A new possibility becomes something that is out of our power. Its not. Take the risk (as long as its a good one!).
Jesus and Procrastination
It is rarely good to pull out a bible passage and explain some personal problem. Yet this passage in Luke 9 is a perfect analysis of procrastination in our lives.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.”But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9.57-62
“I will follow you wherever you go” The bold prediction of a man and woman in love! Perhaps in love with a job, a goal, a career, or even another man or woman. I can’t help but think of Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber.
“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus’ reply here is beautiful and terrifying, because it describes what the man must give up to follow his dream. To follow Jesus is to abandon the luxury of a home for the hard life of the road.
Dreams are easy. Life is Hard. Achieving dreams is harder. Lots of people dream about becoming movie stars, or politicians. A lot less achieve it.
The following verses point out different sacrifices that must be made to follow Jesus. It is not a decision made lightly, or easily. When we live towards something and open ourselves up to the possibility of a different future, one of the only guarantees is difficulty.
Decision Making and Jesus
One of my favourite authors on life and Christ is a British writer named Oliver O’Donovan. His book, Self, World, and Time, has been incredibly helpful for making decisions in my own life. In honour of Scott I’m going to begin a series on the book outlining the challenges of living life and making decisions in light of Christ.
Thoughts 