LATELY, I have really been thinking about the decision making process and the decisions of my life. A few years ago I found myself at a place where a lifetime of decisions led me to a place of unhappiness, discontent, dis-ease. Life was hard. I realized I’d settled. I thought I was making good decisions at the time. I was logical, responsible and careful. I saw life as mine, my life was what I made it. I worked hard to accomplish goals because it was all up to me. Nobody was going to make my life happy but me. No one was going to do this task but me. It was all on me. I had no back-up. Now I am beginning to see how this was all wrong.
People can only make decisions based on what we know. We can only see the options before us. Our intellect can only make decisions rationally, based on known variables. So we “settle” for an option we can see, that makes sense.
This was never how we were intended to go through life. The bridge between the options we see before us and the best life has to offer is FAITH. God wants us to have the best of everything. Look at life now. Do you look around and think “this is so awesome and yummy and wonderful I just can’t stand it”? Are you bubbling over with gratitude?
God has a life for us where the answer is yes. His dreams are bigger than anything we can imagine. He knows yesterday, today and tomorrow and is the ultimate decision maker. The problem we face as humans is that we want to know the outcome. We want to make good decisions that make sense to us. We struggle with letting go and letting God.
Stop reading right now. Pick up a paper and pen and answer this question: Where are you going in life?
What was your answer? Can you find your Faith in the answer? Here is the thing: if you know exactly where your life is going you are not living by Faith. We are bound by the limits of our knowing. If you know exactly where you’re going, you are settling. God has for us a life beyond our wildest dreams. For me, the answer to the question is that I am not sure where I’m going in life. I have some ideas. I believe God has made some promises to me and I know He always keeps his promises. But, I don’t know exactly how that is going to look. The question then becomes: how do we cross that bridge? How do we make decisions with a balance of Faith and rationality?
Well, isn’t that the ultimate question? I don’t claim to know that answer but here is what is on my heart :
1. Pay attention to feeling as much as logic. I think we too often let our minds trump our heart, so to speak. We believe a decision made from logic is somehow superior to a decision made from feeling, a ‘hunch’ or intuition. I am realizing the best decisions are often a balance if the two or sometimes solely on intuition. I do things sometimes having no idea why or where it’s going. It just feels like the right thing to do. The greatest miracles in life come from these decisions, the ones that didn’t make “sense” at the time. Think about it, if it made sense it would be science or logic, of this world, nothing special. The things of His world don’t follow the laws of our world — they don’t make sense to us as they unfold — they only make sense looking back and sometimes not even then. These are miracles.
2. Pray and meditate often. I have gotten off path most often when I’ve insisted on action. I would think and think and plan and strategize. I would then become impatient with the lack of a clear answer, think I needed to ‘get moving’ and I’d make a decision. This was mostly because inaction (stillness) was wildly uncomfortable. I think the best decisions are revealed to us instead of made by us. They are eased into instead of forced. They are a result of patience.
3. Let go of the need to know the outcome. This is so hard. But, if you know exactly where it’s going there is no miracle involved. All you need to know is the next step, the next right thing. Things of God would completely overwhelm us if we knew them all at once. Be comfortable moving without knowing exactly where you’re going. I’ll give you an example from my own life. I believe I am being led towards a leadershjp that will lead many people towards healing. This both excites me and makes me extremely uncomfortable. I’m not sure how or when this will happen. I believe it’s in my lifetime but, I don’t really know. Maybe my role is to set everything up for one of my boys to fulfill that promise.
I know for sure that when I make a decision which facilitates that end, it feels good in my soul. It doesn’t always make sense but it feels good. And it doesn’t always produce the result I think it is going to produce in the time that I expect. Nevertheless, I trust it is a piece to the puzzle. This puzzle, I don’t quit
e see yet but I can see a few pieces and know when they fit together. The book is a piece of the puzzle. Some work in video is a piece of the puzzle. Service as a leader in a small group at the church is a piece. I could go on and on, but here is the point: I have no idea where all of this is going. I know I’m accumulating pieces. I could use logic to try to “figure it all out”. That would literally drive me crazy. Where I am going is miraculous and overwhelming. There is no way in the world I could ever make it happen. When it happens, it will be all God.
The funny thing is that once you have practice moving in Faith, once you practice turning to Him every minute of every day, life becomes really, really fun. I am free to enjoy this moment and all those to come because I’m not worrying about where I’m going or if I’ll get lost. You remember how stressful it used to be to take a trip to a new place? We had to constantly be looking at the map, figuring the best route, watching the road signs so as to not miss a turn? Now, with GPS we can let go of all that. We can enjoy the trip, notice the trees, enjoy the conversation of our passengers because GPS will tell us when to turn. God is our ultimate GPS. The trip is much more enjoyable when we program our lives and decisions on Him. There is a direct correlation between the amount we trust God and the amount of Peace in our lives. Those that experience great Peace in life do not have easier circumstances. They do not have less problems. They just have Faith. Throw out the map, set your GPS and let God get you there.
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