By Tom Thomas –
Making decisions are never easy. I have made a lot of decisions in my life. Many good but many bad. Many a time we have to live with the consequences of our decisions as the choice of a path taken cannot be undone. This could be applicable for choice of vocation, institute of study, life partner, business venture, etc. A good decision would be when the outcome results in a positive outcome for all, and bad when the outcome results in a negative outcome.
Over time the decisions taken result in learnings and from that learnings or experience one can rely on to take new decisions. These days of COVID-19 pandemic, so many decisions lack that past experience that we can fall back on. Just three months ago, it would be unthinkable for us to manage without going to Church for Sunday Mass, going to the gym for our dally exercise or going to educational, business and family events where many others were present, for example. So the decision to venture out these days without a mask and go to crowded places can be viewed as a bad decision since it could expose others to the virus, just in case I am an asymptomatic carrier.
How does one take a decision today, which would have a positive outcome? Pondering over this matter, one of the Bible Study classes we attend weekly, was reflecting on Acts Chapter 1. The very last part of the Chapter bears reference to the process as to how the Apostles went about selecting a replacement for Judas. They had two choices before them- Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. And it is said there that the Apostles prayed and they cast lots and the lot fell on Matthias and he was selected.
I was very much bothered about this. Why after all the prayer, would the Apostles select one by lots? Was that not a form of gambling or chance? This question was answered by the group leader as follows:
- These are especially useful when there are more than one in decision making (Pro 18:18)
- We must keep the subject in prayer.
- Must fully surrender and believe that the result is from God.
- Must tell God that we will proceed as per the result.
- Without hesitation, like the example of Abraham in the Bible, ruthlessly obey.
- In the unlikely event of result being wrong, God will turn it to our good quickly, just because of our obedience.
- But in all this, if our intellect takes over better not rely on lots. All through our lives we will feel that we shouldn’t have based our decision on lots.
This framework serves as a guideline when faced with an important decision that we had to undergo recently when our daughter was in the process of her Medical PG seat allotment. We were in different states and the lockdown had separated us from her physically during the crucial decision making process. By applying these steps as a family, we feel happy that we made the right choice in front of us at that moment in time. In our weak human nature, sometimes we do look back and think what if we had not made that decision, then we look to step 6, and are consoled!
Hope that this short piece will help you make better decisions in future, guided by the Biblical principles!