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December 31, 2021 - February 5, 2022
It doesn’t matter what the specific decision is. Unmade decisions hold power.
Rather than a life plan, a clear vision, or a five-year list of goals, the leper, the paralytic, and Jairus and his wife were given clear instructions by Jesus about what to do next—and only next.
This is a book about making decisions. It’s also a book about making a life.
bring to mind those areas in your life where you do have a choice, no matter how small.
We think if we can understand it, then we can control it.” It’s
But what we often overlook is not only how our choices shape outcomes but how they shape us too. They reveal our character and help to create our character.
Unmade decisions have the power to either close us up in fear or open us up to love. This is both the burden and the gift of our indecision. We get to choose which one we carry.
PRACTICE: PAY ATTENTION
How do you make decisions?
When the answers aren’t clear, what we want more than anything is peace, clarity, and a nudge in the right direction.
In the midst of this highly stimulating exterior world, I made a discovery about my interior world: the input is automatic. So where is the output? How am I regularly getting rid of the soul clutter I no longer need?
Phone, you are not allowed to boss me. I have good work to do. I have a life to live. I have decisions to make.
I hope you’ll receive the wisdom to begin to give up what you no longer need, like fear about the future or regret over the past.
The world is made of people, rich with story, full of intrigue, longing for passion and love and adventure.
sometimes we don’t know what to say when we see someone going through an impossible time. Instead of giving them space to name their own narratives, we rush them into a narrative that makes us feel more comfortable.
Our work today is to take a moment and notice the narrative,
One final thing to remember: naming is not the same as explaining.
But there’s one giant, as-yet unspoken foundational conversation we need to have before we move forward: what we believe about God informs every aspect of our lives, including our decisions.
God often gives a faint vision of things before they ever come to be.
Logic and limits often get in the way of longing. And longing is key to our growth.
We kept not getting what we thought we wanted and were handed something we needed instead.
“the most important thing about you is not the things you achieve but the person you become.”2
IG quotes stop here 4/26/23
Because provision also looks like support, like communication, like turning toward the people you love rather than away from them.
It was the qualifier that was maddening.
We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them.
All beginnings, no matter what they are, hold elements of both joy and heartbreak.
Admitting those areas in your life where you are a beginner is an important part of your decision-making process, because otherwise you may find yourself
making decisions in order to avoid looking dumb or feeling foolish, or to save face.
“There may be a lot of reasons for you to say no to this trip,” he said. “But please, don’t let fear be one of them.”
I ask it at the first sign of hesitation. Am I being led by love or pushed by fear? The
We can’t prevent storms from coming, but we can decide not to invent our own.
Knowing what she wanted was important, but knowing what she wanted more helped her to take her next right step.
When admitting what we want, it’s important to note that we often have to make decisions based on things that seem, on the surface at least, counter to our own desire, either because of finances, family obligations, or other important responsibilities. But if we look further in, these things may be desire-based too.
The sad thing is many of us move through our entire lives not knowing what we want before, during, or after a decision.
One, knowing what you want builds your confidence.
Two, knowing what you want is a gift to the people you love.
Three, knowing what you want can help you let go in peace.
But a pro/con list has at least one major flaw: it assumes every line item weighs an equal amount, and we all know they don’t.
What was life-draining? What was life-giving?
The Life Energy List is simply one tool to help you pay attention to your actual life so that you can discern what your next right thing might be.
Here’s the truth: you can only make decisions based on what you know at the time.
Rather than chasing more, what if we discovered enough right where we are?
That’s one thing about an intentional no: it can open
the door for a life-giving yes.
Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it forever.
Ironically, in choosing to finally stop chasing something we don’t think we have, we may end up finding what was always there.
No amount of lecturing or explaining will ever help us to see something until we’re ready to see it for ourselves.
No matter your life stage or your circumstance, when things begin to change, it’s important to be where you are and remain vigilant about the expectations you might be carrying around.
Much of the rhetoric around our work and life is that if you have an idea but aren’t acting on it, then it means you’re nursing some brand of fear, insecurity, or immaturity.
One thing I’ve discovered that helps me live
my life more fully is to take inventory when anxiety shows up.
