DECISION MAKING

DECISION MAKING

Decision-making is tough.  Each person must make decisions, ranging between ice cream flavor selection, and life partner selection.  Some decisions are mundane and inconsequential.  And, there are decisions with eternal dimensions and consequences.  Some decisions are made by individuals, others by couples, and yet others by larger groups.  Different mechanisms and methods are brought into play, culling some options, and promoting others.  The following are random thoughts on different mechanisms and methods used in decision making:

1.            Abraham-like “get up and go …”  (this is rarely the case)

2.            Paul-like dream “come to Macedonia …”

3.            Open-doors – Closed-doors leading

4.            “Peace”

a.            “cast all your anxieties on the Lord, with thanksgiving, and the peace of God will …”

b.            “peace that passes all understanding…”

c.             Very commonly referenced by my contemporaries

d.            Very little Biblical material, examples???

5.            Advice/Counselors

a.            Listen to wife!

b.            “two heads are better than one…”

c.             “Two-strand cord, three-strand cord…”

6.            Pros-Cons Matrix

7.            Prayer (and, fasting)

a.            Can be part of all of these?

b.            Jesus, “what do you want me to do for you?”

c.             “Ask for wisdom…” Jas.

8.            Ask self, “what do you want?!”

9.            Casting lots

a.            Apostle replacement

b.            Proverbs quotations

c.             Chicago move?!

10.          Signs

a.            Gideon and his fleece

b.            “May 15”? (05/15/96, 05/15/16)

c.             Double shooting star

11.          Pin through the Bible

a.            Names for babies?!

b.            “stay there, useful to me …” 1Tim. (Sarah – Africa or not)

12.          Trial and Error – “scientific method”

13.          Evolving Decision

a.            “audible at line”

b.            Play cards dealt, but draw as needed, poker-like?

c.             Hop in car and just go, correcting course as needed.

14.          Research/Contingencies

15.          Group vote – Jerusalem Council, Acts 15

a.            “Show me the money”

b.            Business model – profitability

c.             Golden-rule – man with gold makes the rules?!

16.          Copy-cat

a.            Do what always has been done

b.            Do what others do

17.          Hard Way

a.            Swim upstream

b.            Counter-culture

c.             Check wind and walk into it

18.          Whatever is in front of you.

a.            “God has put you where you are”

b.            “Play cards dealt”

19.          Finite-world of limited options

a.            Church-shopping

b.            Wife-looking (not so romantic?)

20.          Handwriting on the wall

a.            Daniel – mene mene tekel upharsin

b.            But, cannot read it?!

21.          Dreams and visions

a.            Joseph and dreams of Pharoah

b.            Joseph and his own dreams

c.             Daniel and king’s dreams

d.            Agabus and belt

e.            “mud holes on side road leading to town down the hill…”

22.          “Scriptural”

a.            A clear “thus says the Lord”?

b.            Steve C. “… as long as they are scriptural …”

c.             “Thy word is a light unto my path …”

d.            “… you search the Scripture, … life … son of Hell”

23.          Submission

a.            “… hard to kick against the pricks/goads…”

b.            Often given no choices

c.             Sometimes MUST counter – Acts 5 “we must…”; S,M,A in Daniel?!

d.            God gives direction through leaders

e.            Parent-child m.o.; grown children?!

24.          Go with your gut.

25.          Feels right

a.            Song- “I’ve got a feeling, I’m high on believing…”

b.            Song – “…if loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right ….”

c.             “there is a way that seems right … end is death …”

26.          Go with flow

27.          Stay in herd

28.          Self-preservation

29.          Not stir the pot/crap

30.          Sleeping dogs – let alone; not bite.

31.          Love???

a.            Song – “what’s love got to do with it?”

b.            Tough love vs. indulgence

c.             Rebukes of friend vs. kisses of enemy?

d.            Second commandment!

e.            Golden rule

32.          WWJD??

33.          “still small voice”  Elijah

34.          “Test the spirits, to see if from God…”

35.          Pragmatic – whatever works is right.

36.          “the Lord told me…”

a.            (Hunter Smith) girl at church brought in hitch-hiker because “Lord told me…”  Preacher told her to be careful; she said she feared God and not doing what He told her to do

b.            (Chicago friend)  “Lord told me to humble myself”  “OK, humility is good”  “He told me to pick my nose at front of church …”  “that is not God…”

c.             (Nancy Fagerman) boy told her that he got a message from God about marrying her; she answered, “wait, until He tells me too…”

d.            Do we ever hear what we want to hear?!

37.          “Tongue-speaking” confirmation

a.            Oral Roberts “70 foot Jesus, gonna kill me unless you send in money…”

b.            Hard to argue with self-proclaimed prophets?

c.             “test the spirits …”

d.            “search the Scriptures, to see if …”

38.          Palm-reader/bone-caster, etc.

a.            Witch of Endor

b.            Warnings about wizardry

c.             Consult stars, or the Star-maker?

39.          Just ask Sirie/ just google it?

40.          “get close to God and then do whatever you WANT to do”?! (will want what He wants?)

41.          “go with your ‘passion’…”

42.          Do what asked to do

a.            “Go two miles”

b.            “give 2nd coat away…”

43.          Purpose-statement

a.            Star Trek “Prime Directive”

b.            Thesis of sermon culls mundane material

c.             Mission Statement of a congregation

44.          Just “drink cup is not passed” – Gethsemane

45.          “Jump on in, head first!”

a.            Just have faith…

b.            Broken neck?

c.             “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”

d.            Adventure vs. commissioned ministry?

46.          “wait EIGHT days

a.            Saul told by Samuel to wait seven days

b.            “… wait on the Lord …”

47.          “when you know, you know”?!

48.          As yourself, “what are you holding on to?”

49.          “cast nets on other side …”

50.          See opportunities, not obstacles/problems

51.          Look up, not back; look forward, not back; if look back, see his faithfulness

52.          Long engagement predicts good marriage

a.            One-year engagement?!

b.            Asked M to marry on 07/04/77; met in 03/77

53.          Test-drive a car?

54.          Set up a committee

55.          Toss a coin.

(reminded of Paul Simon song -  Fifty Ways…)

A SECOND DATE?

A SECOND DATE?

I sit alone, pondering the date.  He was a nice boy; and we did have a great time.  But, I was a just little uncomfortable, since it was his family reunion, and I was just his date.  The food was great.  And, everybody was so kind to me, almost too friendly.  It was like “look at ol’ Dean; he finally got a date!  But, she is a real catch…”

I worked hard to get my R.N. license.  But, after a few years doing hospital work, I just got burned out.  From what I hear, that it is quite common.  But, I did enjoy helping the patients, nursing them back to health.  Nothing is more satisfying than seeing somebody checkout with a new smile on their face.  But, it is such a grind.  But, there is such a shortage of nurses.  And, there are so many sick folks.  But, I am little afraid of getting back into nursing.  Agh!

Why did I ever try this internet dating service?!  It was all moving so fast.  One date is not a courtship.  But, long-distance dating is such a strain.  Sure, we were a great match, in so many ways.  I mean, his family runs the local hospital!  I could get a new job there in their small town.  And, it is a nice place, an idyllic sort of “Brigadoon” or “Xanadu”?!  But, there are problems, even in Shangra-La, to be sure.

So, what’s next?  I do not want to “lead him on” but I cannot seem to quit thinking about Dean.  It was overwhelming – the thought of pulling up roots, moving, starting over in a strange new place.  And, that county is so poor.  I have grown to like it here in the city, with so many advantages.  But, “it is not good to be alone” is the first negative comment in the Holy Scriptures?! 

I do enjoy my lifestyle.  I can come and go as I please.  I make decent money with my new job, even though it is not nursing.  But, how I miss the smell of a hospital!  And the chatter with other nurses in the break-room was stimulating.  Although, I am not sure that my back can take the stain of lifting those over-weight patients, again.  Some of them seem incapable of helping themselves even roll over, much less getting up and waddling over to the restroom.  But it is not all about the hospital.  His family would be fun to be around.

I hate second-guessing myself.  I had to make a decision.  Just a couple more years, and I can retire from this job.  Maybe I was too harsh?  Telling Dean that I did not think it was going to “work out” could have been mollified with something like “let’s stay in touch and see where this goes”?!  But, he has likely moved on and has several butterflies floating around him.  But, maybe I should drop him a note?  We could get a cup of coffee every once in a while?  But, his family probably hates me now.  Maybe I will just write poetry to myself; nobody wants to read it anyway.  And the muses visit so unpredictably.

AN EMPTY LINE?

AN EMPTY LINE?

No dove through the window, sitting on the line?

A sign from heaven that all would be just fine!

Affirmation?  Confirmation?  Why won’t you say?

Some direction, some guidance, show me the way!

 

Why are you mute?  Why are you so quiet?

I wait in the dark, for a flicker of light!

Whatever you say, wherever you send –

I’d quickly arise, and surely “amen!”

 

With mixed counsel and conflicting advice,

Is my uncertainty and fear so much a vice?

“wait on the Lord” and “wait seven days”

Are precepts from above that I will obey.

 

Casting nets from a boat, in which you did sleep,

I, empty, float along, pondering the deep.

“fishers of men”?  I remember what You said!

Loyalty we all pledged; then I cursed and I fled?!

 

Oh, for a chance to do it all again!

To walk and to talk, the way it was then.

But how can it be?  I’ve looked back from the plow.

“unworthy” He said!  He’s through with me now?!

 

The Cross says He loves me!  The empty grave says even more?!

Restarts?  Second-chances?  Life He has and will restore?!

Not sure, I will just fall back and “do what I know”?

What else can I do?  I just do not know where to go.

 

Hey look!  Who is that calling over there on the shore?

That voice?  I know it!  We’ve all heard it before!

The fish, y’all can keep;  I’m jumping in for the swim!

He’s back!  He’s calling!  Never again will I leave Him!

 

Three times I denied Him;  Three times “do you love me?”

I do not deserve this; and , not sure how it could be.

Forgiven,  reinstated, “fish for men” and “feed my sheep”!

Simon Peter is the sign, that even losers, He will keep!

 

So, here I live with questions still floating in my head.

But, this I know, Jesus is alive!  He’s risen from the dead!

 

Rom.5  “while we were yet sinners … how much more, now …”

MOCKINGBIRDS

MOCKINGBIRDS

“… he was justa prazing the Lawd!” 

Prayerfully, I was walking into work early Monday morning, striving to be positive.  I noted a mockingbird “singing his head off” as I approached the guard station.  I remarked to the guards about the songster; and, Wanda added that the bird sang all night, sometimes.  Then, Esther, an older, black sister prophesied that “…he was justa prazing the Lawd! – if we don’t, then even the stones will!”

After complimenting Esther on her insight, I walked on in to the pulp mill, smiling and thanking the Lord for “showing up!  Then I mused, “…out of the mouth of babes …”  Oh, this made my day!  And, I shall never look at a mockingbird the same again!

“… let everything that has breath praise the LORD!” (Ps.150:6)