The Briar Patch of Indecision

I blatently stole this entry from my friend, Joe. I read it on his blog and thought it was very interesting how he and I have been thinking about the exact same things lately. I even have a piece of paper in my Bible with my list of Pro's and Con's. You'll understand after reading this...

"We all have times in our lives when we are faced with decisions that should be made. And sometimes we spend a whole lot of time not making a choice at all. Which really is a choice to not decide. This my friends is called indecision. Today I wish to talk briefly of the purpose of indecision along with why we must deal with it.

The purpose: indecision is basically that time in our lives when we know we are facing a choice we must make. It may be a choice of relationship, or a choice of carrier, or a choice of missionary work. (such is my decision). What are the choices you are facing?

We face moments where we are undecided at the moment. And there is a purpose for this time. The purpose is this - during our time of indecision we are called to look at the pro's and con's of the decisions we could make. We are then faced to discover who we are at that present time. We are forced to examine what are lives are all about. We are then beckoned to choose who we want to become. Then we are asked to make our decisions based on what we unearth and discover as we wrestle with all that is tied into the choice we should be making. Should I date this person or not? Should I quit my job and get another one? Should I move to denmark? Or brazil? Or stay in Norwalk Iowa? (the last one is the choice I face) What choices are you facing? The purpose of indecision is that it forces us to truly examine the choice before us, as well as examine who we are and who we want to become. The second purpose of indecision is to bring us to a place of decision.

Which brings me to the main point of this blog adventure. We need to deal with indecision. Most people don't. And the results are harmful. For example, you do not decide what you want your relationship with so and so to be....the result is you end up playing with each others heart...and end up hurting each other in the end. You do not decide what to do about your job...you end up spending your life in drudgery wondering if you could be doing something else. You do not decide where you want to serve GOD....i.e. denamrk, france, brazil, norwalk Iowa. (that's me)....I end up missing the greatest adventure GOD has called me on so far in my life.

So why do people live so long in indecision? I think it's for a few reasons:
1.) They refuse to try to understand themselves.....we are complex. We confuse and mislead ourselves all the time. Choices make us find out who we are and force us to decide who we will become
2.) Because of fear......we are afraid we will make the wrong choice...or we fear people will not support our choices.
3.) We do not want to be held accountable for the choices we make. We are so lame sometimes. Personal responsibilty leads to freedom and so often we deny our freedom in order to freely blame everything on someone else.

One last thought before I go. To not decide is to decide. Yep....think that one over. You never gain anything by living your life in the briar patch of indecision. So I would suggest spending some time really examining every aspect of the choice you face. Take it before GOD and ask him to help you make the right choice. And then decide. And regardless of the outcome you will at least be moving forward. Instead of being torn apart by the consequence of not deciding at all."