Decision Making
I haven’t felt good all week. Ok, I’m a guy and I fit the stereotypical male profile of a sick male. I want to do nothing and wish my wife would baby me. By the way, my wife also fits the stereotype of a sick female where she will keep going until she’s almost dead and when she’s sick, she is not pleasant, at least to me.
It just so happens that my wife is out of town taking care of her parents this week while I’m sick. So, besides not feeling well, there are certain chores that have to be done like feeding the pets. So, my first thought while sick is to prioritize those things that have to get done and those that can be put off or cancelled.
I’ve had to do that prioritization process several times in my life and each time is slightly different depending on my assessment of the priority of the tasks. For example, I decided to cancel a music lesson I had scheduled but did decide to go to the college class I’m taking. To give you an idea of my past decision-making process, I remember giving a presentation to a group representing my management and the management of a joint venture company we were working with while I had a 103 degree temperature in my younger days (I’ll never try that again). The point is that I was attempting to prioritize those things I considered essential from those things I thought weren’t.
I’m starting to get better so now I’m analyzing my prioritization process for the impact of my decisions (there is always something that can be learned, right?). One of the tasks I decided not to do was to go to a Bible study the other day. This got me thinking of how I determine the relative priority in my decision-making process.
Over, the last week, I consistently decided that feeding myself food was a high priority so why did I decide that going to a Bible study where I’d get feed from God’s word and fellowship wasn’t a high priority? I decided that the core of my daily devotion was essential but delayed the part I’ve considered to be the lagniappe (do you remember that “lagniappe” means a little something extra?). How did I make that distinction?
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” - Hebrews 12:1-3, 12-17 ESV
I’d like to think that I made the decisions I made with others in mind (in case I was infectious) but I can’t in good faith state that. I do know what I long to hear…
“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” - Matthew 25:21 ESV
