Friday October 10, 2008

This is an iron-sharpening-iron moment. Please standby…

We call ourselves followers of Christ. But I have to ask… really? You think so? Maybe because all too often, I have to ask myself. Are you following? I want to seriously consider how we make decisions… the little day-to-day decisions. Coffee? Tea? Water? or perhaps… Buy? Save? Invest? Borrow? I’m not trying to say that one of them is a better choice. I’m asking where your decision making nexus is located.

I’ve always been interested in learning about how people think. What makes them tick. I remember this one conversation with a gal. We were discussing a situation after the fact. So she was talking about the facts about the situation and then she told me how she had decided to proceed. So I asked her, how she arrived at that choice. And it was simply, “It felt right.” I’m not trying to make her look bad, but seriously… How do you even start to discuss something when the support for the decision is purely emotional? There’s no point of reference. It’s just pitting one person’s feelings against another person’s feelings on the matter. Have you seen how arguments become circular and there is no honest move to compromise? I think it is because we want what we want and there is really, seriously, no way to discuss or compromise with someone who takes that kind of stance.

I haven’t forgotten the left-brain dominated people. ^_^ Yeah, I must count myself among them. We have this idea that logic is the best way somehow. We can reason our way to the wisest decision. But this assumes we somehow know it all. But we don’t… as much as have individual expertise, the range of knowledge is so specific that honestly… I think the best thing logic can come up with is pragmatism. Just go with what works. But there’s a problem… How do you know it’s actually working? You don’t. We rationalize when it’s convenient for us. We say it’s logical, but really the problem is our basic assumptions. If your assumptions are off one iota, your extrapolations are going to be way off. So try to follow logic and you may end up a madman knowing neither right nor wrong, or you end up eviscerating yourself by saying there is neither right nor wrong.

To sum it up, when we just follow our emotions/logic, we fulfill those times described in the Old Testament, “everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes.” So what other choice remains? I’d like to summarize it simply. Jesus is Lord. I think that this has yet to sink in fully for me as well. But I’m trusting that we will recognize His voice when he calls. And we will follow…

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