Photo Credit: Bonjour Tristesse
I was talking to a young friend of mine last night, who being in their early twenties, was facing an array of choices to be made.
As I listened and tried to encourage this person by telling them that they had all the wisdom they needed to make a good decision. They quickly brought up the fear of making the wrong choice, the wrong decision.
Good point.
But I told this person, you can't put off making these difficult decisions, especially if the outcome is important to your heart. By ignoring the issues, or hoping someone else will make the choice for you, takes the beautiful experience and responsibility of living, out of your hands and into the hands of a forfeited choice, of which breeds it owns beast of resentment in the end. We were meant to walk out our journey distinctly. With tough choices included.
When one thinks of the word responsibility, there are many heavy handed connotations that come to mind. And yes, responsibility is a sobering act, but it is so much more than that. It is your "response". It is your outward actions speaking up and out in regards to how you feel about a particular subject, moment, person, event, place, etc.
Your actions--your responses, are telling us where you place these elements of living in order of importance. Just as a parent has a responsibility to care for their child, it is a condition of the heart manifested in outward actions with provision, tenderness, and discipline. The response is love and the responsibility backs this up. To know that you can count on someone, because they are responsible (not perfect) and free to make choices in life backed up by love, brings such security and freedom to our hearts.
"Feeling liberated... and pressed to be responsible because of it." --Theodore Ndawillie II
This morning, when I woke up, I recalled the conversation I had with that person last night, and realized how similar it was to my own 5 month old dialogue with God. I'm in the midst of trying to avoid making a hard decision as well, and I'm fearful of making the wrong decision. But you can't escape the process of living if you choose to live.
The act of choosing can be so stressful, but once a choice is made a sense of freedom arises, and
you can begin to asses from that place. What was good, bad? What was learned? Do we need to recalculate? But if you had never made that choice (good or awful), you'd be consistently in a state of limbo, afraid to commit, have faith, and trust yourself to state a decision.
And what if you do make the wrong choice? Will you not realize it half way through and perhaps find your way to the good choice? Faith is always a risk. And I love how the Bible states that Love never fails and that All things work for good, to those that love God and are called according to His purpose.
It seems like I forget that truth ever so quickly, especially in the midst of my current choice dilemma.
Love will always find a way to you. Put away fear, and just be humble enough to see love finding its way to you in every corner of your life's journey.
Wisdom's Knocking:
By not making a decision, you've made a decision: You don't care. Or you are too afraid to care.
