Make a Decision

My aunt bought me one of these pads years ago. I'm not sure I was aware of it then, but I guess she was...I'm pretty bad at making decisions.

I remember one time sitting in my living room when I was in high school and staring at the wall. My sister walked in and asked what I was doing. "Trying to figure out if I should play video games or go skateboarding," I replied. (Oh, the hardships of youth...) My sister said that was dumb and walked away. She came back about 25 minutes later and I was still sitting there, undecided. "You're ridiculous!" she said, and she was right. I had spent so much time deciding what to do, that I could have probably done both things with the time I wasted.

Where does this come from? Over the years I've come to realize that this indecisiveness is rooted in fear. I'm afraid to make the wrong decision, and so I spend way more time than necessary to make the right one. The folly in that should be more obvious, but it took years to hit me: If I never make a mistake, then I'll never learn anything. As some guy I've never heard of said, "Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (1 Corinthians 12:9-10)

What a great attitude to have towards the things we avoid in life! And what trust in God to make all things right, even when we go wrong. That's what it boils down to: trust. Do I trust God enough to guide me through my weaknesses, allowing me to make only the mistakes He knows I am able to grow from? If I do, then the fear that binds me is gone, and I am free to decide knowing I'm taken care of no matter what the outcome.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)