Decisions, decisions, and how to make them

By Rob Hurtgen

The average American makes 35,000 decisions a day. At your local Starbucks, you have 80,000 possible choices to enjoy your coffee. Sonic, America's most famous drive-in, boasts a menu of 168,984 drink options. We do not have a shortage of opportunities.

Some choices in life have less of an impact than others. Choosing your beverage has less of an effect than selecting a name for your baby. Deciding what to do with your life is much less involved than picking grande or venti. With so many possible choices, numerous options to live in our global society, how in the world are we supposed to make the right decision?

Some ancient wisdom of the Bible gives us some insight into making choices in our modern culture. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 says, "but first test everything; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." There are four ways from this to help us make decisions in an oversaturated world.

First, stop. Social media, email, television news are all bombarding you with information. Not every piece of information has the same value. Some of it is more important than others. Some need to be received, and others rejected. In the middle of being bombarded with information, stop. You cannot judge what the best decision is while attempting to drink from the fire hydrant of information. Some of the worst decisions I have ever made could have been prevented by stopping and looking closer at the information I was receiving.

Second, ask yourself, "what do I want to happen?" Stephen Covey famously phrased it this way, "Keep the end in mind." Often when you can say what the result of a decision should look like you can know if that is a choice you want to make.

Third, diligently scrutinize your information. First Thessalonians says "...test everything ..." Look closely and consider the sources of your data. Test everything to determine what about this is good and categorize what is evil. If you conclude without allowing room to scrutinize your decision and decision-making process you will much more likely make a decision that you regret. No decision worth making that cannot allow for scrutiny.

Lastly, hold fast to what is good. Whatever is of value, cling to it. Whatever is redeemable, don't let out of your sight. When you focus your attention on what is valuable over time what is insignificant fades away.