Not Deciding is Deciding

What about those deals we don’t ever really decide? We think one way for a while, then we think the other way. Back and forth we swing. “Maybe I will….nah, I don’t think I will.”  Or stuff we decide, but never act on. “I’m going to get a checkup…maybe a complete physical”. But then it’s “Wow, I was going to do that 6 months ago.” But you didn’t.

Either we don’t really decide….or we decide, but don’t really.

Let’s keep it real here. What kinds of things are we not deciding?

• to exercise and eat right.

• to consistently give a percentage to the Lord.

• to spend time with God every day.

• to start a Radical Mentoring group.

• to pray with my wife each night.

• to save consistently.

• to send an encouraging note to someone every day.

• to spend more quality time with my wife and kids.

• to turn off my ‘technology’ in the evenings and be fully present.

• to volunteer and do something to help ‘the least of these’.

God is very decisive. He says “yes” or “no”. Although it’s taken a little out of context, Matthew 5:37 challenges us to do the same. It says “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one”. Another translation says “for anything else is the beginning of evil”.

Think about it. There’s no anguish when we know the right answer, say “yes”, mean it and do it. And there’s little angst when we say “no” and clearly mean it. It’s when we’re tentative…when we want don’t want to commit….when we ‘want time to think about it’…when we don’t want to have to do the work required by a definitive “yes” or “no”…that’s when we get in trouble. That’s when we decide by not deciding.

Maybe the most popular way of not deciding is to say “Let me pray about it”. Yes, there are big decisions that we need to pray about. But isn’t it true that most of the time we say that, we don’t end up praying that much? And isn’t it true we often know the best option right then and there? We just want to put off being committed.

As the 81 year-old widow sat sobbing by the casket of her husband, she said “We were so looking forward to traveling together when we got old!” They couldn’t get up the nerve to go anywhere. He died and it was too late. They decided by not deciding.

I’ve started praying with my smart phone on the table beside me. If I sense God nudging me to reach out to someone, I’ll text or email them right then and there. If it involves more than that, I put it on my calendar. I’ve figured out the odds of making a decision and following through directly correlates to putting it on my calendar.

Try this. When God speaks, act on it immediately. Get out the card, make the call, put a “to do” on your calendar. When a decision stands in front of you, make it. If you need more data, the advice of others, or time with the Father to decide, schedule each one of those actions on your calendar. If you don’t decide, you’re deciding anyway.

¹ from ‘Freewill’ by Rush

Question: What decisions are you deciding my NOT deciding? Share them here.