Decide…

It’s such a final word, right?

It should come as no surprise that I am, we are, slow deciders. We are not so much big risk takers or cliff jumpers. We like to weigh and balance things out before deciding.

My Honey and I… we are Let your Yes be Yes people. Once committed to something… well, for better or worse – we are committed.

Because of this fact, it took us a long while to realize that God moves in seasons and some things we are called to do are not necessarily from here to eternity. Still – when we say yes – we mean it with all of our hearts! So – because that is true, it can take us awhile to decide!

However avoiding or putting off decisions is, as it turns out, a decision in and of itself sometimes, right?

We want to be intentional in how we live.

Intentionality requires deciding things on purpose.

Often times, people tend to let their emotions boss them around, and they come to ‘decisions’ without ever really deciding on purpose. We jump to conclusions and make assumptions and sometimes the strain and the stress we feel or sense is simply due to a lack of Deciding.

We (or maybe it’s just me?) let things unfold and happen around us and sometimes to us… but it’s not always because we decided on a thing but because there is just always motion… forward or backward. Time very rarely (read: hardly ever!) actually stands still!

It can be in business, in church, in relationships of all kinds –this indecisiveness often times ends up having the decisions made for us.

And no one loves that feeling. It can feel like we have no control but the reality is our hesitation decides for us.

Remember when I gave up Self Doubt and Hesitation for Lent? Yeah… me, too! It was great! I’m planning on getting back to living like that because there was so much freedom there. So much confidence and trust.

Sometimes time is required. Some decisions must have space to unfold and expand and weigh in and weigh out. Often times wisdom comes slowly, quietly, and we must lean in and listen closely. Plus there is this: Just call me Rory Gilmore, because I love me some Pro and Con lists –but those take time!

There are the other times, however, when the decision is not as hard as we make it or maybe it still feels hard, but He is asking us to take a leap of faith anyway!

Honestly, asking the age old beloved question from the 90’s really does work:

What WOULD Jesus do?

Yeah. That.

Just ask that… and then decide to go do it!

We are learning to be a little riskier these days –to embrace change and dream bigger. And yet, we are also learning to be true to who we are – to stay true to the process that works best for us and to communicate through out our thinking and feeling and that is helping us in all of our deciding.

It is a stretching season… but it is a good season, and we are finding there is a balance between a lack of hesitation and a willingness to wait.

Hesitation is often fear-driven and takes control –and often times, the deciding– out of your hands. No one wants that.

But a willingness to wait can be Spirit-led and can open up wide the gates of heaven and windows of blessing and favor. (And pretty much everyone wants that, right?)

So we are learning to walk in the balance of Intentional Deciding… where we won’t let Hesitation hold us back, but we won’t be unwilling to Wait, if that is what is needed!