Decision Making

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Internet 101: Knee Jerk Reactions

“Quick! Grab your pitch forks! Someone posted an article on social media that I don’t like!” 

You can’t scroll through the newsfeed anymore without seeing knee jerk reaction posts…

“I am outraged that this is happening! We must all protest IMMEDIATELY!” 

So I click on the article and it turns out to be a dud. In fact, the article is twisting words to make it read a certain way.

Don’t buy into every piece of click bait on the internet. Take 5 minutes to do a quick search and see if there’s any validity. 

And please, please, please don’t make leaping assumptions about the message behind something or “how it’s poisoning us all” without doing some research.

It’s time to disband social media mobs. 

What is it accomplishing?

Most of the stuff you see smacks of fear and 95% of that fear is unfounded.

Be careful in our world of hyperbole. 

I know it’s not hard to believe that the machine–media and politicians–want us to be in a frenzy. When the people are in a frenzy, they will make rash decisions and allow things to happen that they might not otherwise agree to under normal circumstances.

And, no, this post is not about the Orlando massacre, but the same logic applies. 

What I’m referencing is a social media mob forming over a movie that’s coming out.

Seriously? Take a chill pill. It’s a movie.

If you don’t want to go, then don’t go. There’s no reason to stir up trouble about it.

Don’t blow up the internet with your rage about something that you read in an article. I mean, everything’s true if someone posts it on a website, right? 

Yeah. About that…

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Say no to yourself

You don’t have to eat sweets everyday, Audra!

I like food. All food. 

Sweet. 

Sour. 

Savory. 

Salty. 

If it’s food, I like it.

Unless it’s liver…I draw the line at liver. 

Self- control with food is hard. Just take a stroll down the weight loss section of your local bookstore. 

Hundreds of books!!!

Yet most people fail their diets. 

The problem is not so much the food you eat, though, pizza and cheeseburgers everyday isn’t helping you. 

The problem is self-control. Gluttony is a real vice.

Moderation is key, but where’s the fun in that?

Not everything has to be fun. 

I want ice cream and chocolate right now. There will be no delicious goodness tonight. 

Am I happy about this deprivation? 

Absolutely not!

Saying no to yourself is not always fun, but it’s the small choices that snowball into big changes. 

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Just commit already!

Hesitation is the leading cause of road kill. 

Making decisions can be tough. We all want a road map, the quickest and surest way to success. 

There’s nothing wrong with planning–unless your planning leads to nowhere. 

At some point, you need to make a decision. 

Most people will agree with this statement. I can hear the amens now…

Our actions tell a different story. 

We hesitate. 

We become afraid. 

We get hit by a bus going 70 miles an hour. 

When you’re scared of commitment (just pick a side of the road already!) there are consequences. 

No one wants to become road kill. 

I’m convinced that the secret of confident people is not that they have it all figured out. 

They’re simply willing to commit. 

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A life of action

I was taught from an early age that waiting around for God to do something you can do is wrong. 

God does mighty things on our behalf, but we have a role to play too. 

Praying is great. Faith is great. 

Knowing when to put feet on our prayers and actions behind our faith? 

Even better. 

I have a lot of friends who say God requires them to wait forever. He never seems to show them what to do. 

This has not been my experience. 

God has always led me to action. Very few times have I been told to wait. 

I certainly believe that there are times and seasons of waiting, of growth. 

But my problem is not waiting. My problem is hesitation. 

If left to my own devices, I will second guess myself in every decision. I willtake forever to make a choice. 

So, God always charges me with action. 

Audra, do something! Anything!

There’s nothing wrong with waiting on the Lord. Just don’t wait so long you decide to set up camp and are not ready when He calls. 

There’s also nothing wrong with making a decision, especially if you know it lines up with Scripture. The Bible talks about this specifically. 

I want to leave you with a list of practical ways to make decisions. 

  1. Pray. Talk to God and then listen. 
  2. Read your Bible. What passages speak to your situation? Make your decision accordingly. I highly recommend you don’t do something that goes against the Bible. 
  3. Seek wise counsel. You’re not alone. Talk to the wise people God has planted in your life. 

After you do these things, make a decision! Faith without action is dead. 

Learning how to know and follow God’s voice is the most important thing a Christian needs to learn. 

Indecision is not a spiritual gift or a fruit of the Spirit. 

Every hero in the Bible knew how or learned how to make decisions. 

Because of Christ we have nothing to fear and nothing to lose. 

Let’s live out of that confidence instead of quaking in our boots, afraid to move. 

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Embrace Quiet Times

It’s a rainy day in the Pacific Northwest. I’m enjoying the peace and quiet upstairs. There’s nothing big planned for the afternoon and no one is coming over for dinner. I’d call this a perfect moment, a time of reflection that isn’t taking place in distress or chaos.

These times are the best for making decisions and casting vision for the future.

I’m not bashing in-the-moment choices because these are necessary too. However, there’s something special about the quiet moments that occur before big life events.

For example, I now live in a subtropic region. Come late September the weather will be easy to predict. It’s going to be cold, wet, and overcast until late May or early June. That’s why this summer has been so busy for me. Some things have to be done while it’s sunny, so priorities shift during the brief summer months.

And it’s another reason why this rainy day was needed.

I’ve been living at such a fast pace trying to accomplish my summer to-do list that it’s taken a rainy day to finally slow me down. One thing I’ve learned recently is that there’s no point in whining about the snail paced times of your life.

Human beings live in a constant state of transition. You’re either coming out of a time of transition or you’re entering one.

It’s that simple.

The only people who do not live by this model can be found in the cemetery.

Why not take the seemingly “boring” times of minimal change to plan?

Quiet moments don’t come around very often. Try making some decisions when the world isn’t moving like a race car in the Indy 500.

Things look a lot different when they aren’t blurring all around you.