How we choose what we choose

 

This week we are examining and exploring the thread that connects the Prodigal Family to the Loving-kindness of the Samaritan.  We named and noticed that one common theme is that of choices.  Yesterday, we looked at the decisions we made in life and the decisions that were made for us.  Moments we took the bull by the horns or felt trampled by the bull in the China shop of our soul.  Both are woven into our stories.  You may have studied what you studied in school because that was your parents’ expectation.  You may live where you live because that is what was acceptable, and you wanted to people please.  You may have what you have for breakfast because the doctor told you so.  Or you may say what you say online because if other people have a problem with that, you are just keeping it real, speaking the truth, being prophetic!  Freedom of choice is an American ideal that we worship daily.  We make so many choices each day, many without conscious thought (like breathing!  I don’t have to tell my brain to inhale and exhale, thankfully this just happens.  I don’t have to say, “Heart keep circulating blood”).   Researchers at Cornell University estimate we make 226.7 decisions each day on food alone ~ which feels like a lot ~ but have you seen some of the menus at restaurants!  It is estimated that the average adult makes about 35,000 conscious decisions each day. Each decision, of course, carries certain consequences with it that are both good and bad.

There are certain decision-making styles and strategies that guide the process: 

• Impulsiveness — Leverage the first option you are given and be done.
• Compliance — Choosing the most pleasing, comfortable, and popular option as it pertains to those impacted.
• Delegating — Not making the decision yourself but pushing it off to trusted others.
• Avoidance/deflection — Either avoiding or ignoring decisions in an effort to side step responsibility of their impact.
• Balancing — Weighing the factors involved, studying them, and then using the information to render the best decision in the moment.
• Prioritizing and Reflecting — Putting the most energy, thought, and effort into those decisions that will have the greatest impact.

Go back to the list you made yesterday of choices from your life ~ the major and mundane.  Which of the above styles and strategies might have been at play as you traveled the road you selected?  I eat what I eat due to balancing ~ weighing the health information while also trying to find what tastes good.  Right now, our church is prioritizing and reflecting as we prepare to search for our next Music Minister.  We are entrusting some of this work to a Search Team, just as we entrust money decisions to the Finance Team and Council.  I can avoid and deflect with the best of them, kick the can down the road, especially when it comes to planning and scheduling vacation.  To be sure, this only scratches the surface of strategies, maybe you can add to the above six.  Maybe family or peers or people pleasing are the motivating factors that moved your heart recently.  Maybe you felt a God nudge to go in a direction recently that was like a salmon swimming upstream.  I pray this framework helps shine the light on the ways we do what we do as we travel the paths of life today. Amen.