On Making Big Decisions

This is the time of year the upperclassmen at Small College are looking a little haunted. It's a look I recognize from the faces of Boys who have been across the breakfast table from me across the years. The look is part I'll-never-finish-that-project-by-Friday and part WHAT-AM-I-GOING-TO-DO-WITH-MY-LIFE?

It's a classic dilemma of the urgent versus the important. There's what has to be done now, immediately, and that in itself feels crushing. That's the urgent. But when you reach the end of a life stage (high school, college, kids-at-home motherhood, career) you also have the important decisions. What am I supposed to be doing next?

So how do you make these decisions? Even those of us who believe God has a plan for our lives struggle with this, but Jesus spoke to this issue in clear terms. The key verse that should govern our decision-making process is Matthew 6:33:

Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.

Of course, Jesus is talking about making a living, saying that non-believers concentrate on this as the most important decision of their lives. How will they provide for themselves? How will they make enough money to buy food and clothing?

But in His "consider the lilies of the field" admonition, Christ says that the first questions should be "How will I serve God? Where will I find Him working in my life, and honor that?" Answers to all of your other life choices will fall in place when you concentrate on this, He says. The Message version of the New Testament puts it this way:

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

What is your ministry? Where is the place God has designated where you can serve Him productively and joyfully? If you took the whole career issue out of the equation, what would the answer to these questions be?

When you figure that one out, everything else falls in place.