Decisions: Walking With God

There are quite a few decisions that I need to be making over the next few weeks. There are some decisions that we as a church staff need to make over the next few weeks as well. Decisions are difficult.

This morning, I left the house around 5 am to go on my walk. As I was walking, I was talking and debating with God over one particular issue that we as a church and staff are dealing with. The decision is "big". Well, I used my walk this morning to talk to God about this decision. As I battling and talking and listening and engaging, I noticed something .......

I have a "routine" of where I walk and I make a left on Highland Ave. Well, I was walking and I saw Arby's. Now to most of my readers, this means absolutely nothing. Well Arby's is about a mile past Highland. Thus, my debating, arguing and discussing with God was so intense this morning that it was about 15 minutes before I realized that I "missed" my turn.

From a walk standpoint, it was not a "biggie". I hooked the left at Arby's and caught up to the road that I usually connect onto at Highland. This morning, I walked right at 8 miles and the conversation with God was productive. I definitely feel that I have a better grasp on what decisions need to be made.

Recently, I pulled out an old book from seminary that was on servant leadership and there wa a section on (in) it concerning decisions. Here are some thoughts.

The one story from the Bible that seems to always put out there on leadership is Jethro and Moses. Their interaction is in Exodus 18. Here are three pieces of advice:

1. Talk more to God about the people than to the people about their problems.
2. Teach the people more clearly to walk in God's way.
3. Delegate responsibility to others and share the burden of leadership with them.

Leadership and decisions go hand in hand.

I think that we can then make a jump to 2 Samuel and look at Uzzah. The story of Uzzah is "an odd" story and if you want to read it, it can be found in chapter 6. There are three indicators of Good Decision Making. Here they are:

1. Good decisions are made in an Atmosphere of Joy
2. Good Leadership Decides in Favor of God Before Self
3. Good Leadership Sometimes Makes Decision to Postpone Deciding

At times, I think that it is a wise decision to postpone deciding. This is especially the case when the decisions are "patch-work" decisions. Often, we are making decisions to repair our prior decisions. The following is a statement that we need to keep in mind:

At times, it is time to say, "enough is enough". Let's stop improving. There are too many patches on those pants. Deciding once and deciding well avoids such patchwork. Decision repair usually serves to keep us so busy with yesterday's decisions we avoid the dangerous work of making new ones.

For me, it might be time to say, "enough is enough".

There are two all important rules for deciding:

1. Decide without Redeciding: Make a Decision AND don't look back
2. Don't decide until you have gotten past your doubts

I like the words of Lee Iacocca. He says, " It's a good thing that God doesn't let you look a year or two into the future, or you might surely be tempted to shoot yourslef.

Decisions are difficult. Decisions need to be made at the right time. on a number of issues, the right time is coming and we need to decide. The wrong decision at the right time = a mistake. HOWEVER, the right decision at the right time = success.

I truly believe that we can say enough is enough, make a new decision and make the right decision and then dance with joy because we will be having success.