Success-ful people, says motivational speaker Andy Andrews, make decisions quickly, and change their mind slowly. People who are failures take forever to make up their mind, then quickly change it again.
That knocks me off the success ladder entirely, I think sometimes. In many areas of life, indecision is my home state. If you meet me standing in the middle of an aisle at WalMart, eyes glazed over, you should know that I've likely been there for far too long, deciding: cat or bird calendar? Zero or low fat yogurt? And if you watch long enough, you may catch me solving the decissue (yes, I made that word up - couldn't decide which word to use) one of two ways: buying both or fleeing the store with nothing.
Occasionally, I march for the checkout, flushed with victory. Pawing through my purse, I locate my debit card and follow the machine's instructions. What's my reward for winning a skirmish with indecisiveness? Another round of decisions: savings or chequing? Cash back? Answering yes to that one means a bonus question: $20, $40, or $60? "May I call a friend?" I want to plead, some days.
But those are life's easy choices. At one of my speaking engagements, a woman in my audience told me about a major choice she and her husband made. Sure that God wanted them to move their family out of the city, they sold their comfortable (paid for, I seem to recall) home in town and moved deep into the country.
Their boxes weren't even unpacked when things started going badly wrong. The move proved a horrible mistake. Their decision couldn't be reversed. I listened long as she explained how her world had spun into chaos.
A single choice - a wrong one, she realized in retrospect. But what impressed me was her determination that no matter what, she wouldn't blame God for their circumstances. Though her situation had shaken her faith for a time, she could see how God was using it to build a stronger, more mature faith.
There are no wrong decisions, someone told me once. In one sense, that's true, because when we let him, God grows good things in the compost of even our worst missteps.
Among all the choices we make in life, none matter more than our choices about faith. Regardless of which decisions you face today, or how fast (or slow) you make them, consider these deeply:
What do I believe about God? Am I willing to trust the Bible? If I say I know Jesus Christ, will I allow his message to daily impact my attitudes and influence my behavior? Your eternal success depends on getting those right.
