Decisions

There are so many decisions that we make every day that we, thankfully, do not spend much time over. Then there are those that we spend a lot of time and energy on - trying to look at every angle, trying to find the perfect outcome.

I've tried to come up with the right analogy. I don't think it is perfect, but so far what I have come up with is that sometimes we come to places in our lives where the road that we are on leads to a room with multiple doors, and you have to decide which one to go through. What is on the other side of those doors is not always exactly clear, some may have windows that let you get a glimpse and some may "seem" more safe or risky. But the point is that you can't really tell for sure, and that you have to choose one of them because staying right there is not an option.

I know a lot of people that are in one of those rooms right now (including me). In my situation, it looks like most people that I know are all going the same direction, and to some extent that seems "safest." But, some people that I care about very much are going different ways - some by choice and some because they have to. Some people have lovingly suggested to me that I consider a completely different door. Should I follow the majority, try to follow others, go through a door that nobody else seems to be choosing? The situation can be paralyzing.

I wonder, though, whether these are to a large extent created concerns that make the decision so difficult and seem so significant. I recognize that there are things that I do not see and I do not understand and that, if I allow myself to be open to it and not be paralyzed into simply watching, I will follow the path that has existed for me since before I was born. That God will make use of my circumstances.

"If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well."

Ecclesiastes 11:3 - 6.

So, once again, I pray for direction for myself and for all that are in similar circumstances.