Are Your Choices Hurting Your Chances?

I’m sitting in a café, staring out the window as raindrops fall. Heavily. When I parked, I almost grabbed my umbrella, but it looked like the rain had stopped, so I took a chance and left it in the car.

It was a decision I now regret.

It occurs to me how often we make decisions just like I did today. In doing so, we “take a chance” “ and end with regret, rather than make a choice, and end up grateful.

And I’m not talking about umbrellas here.

I’m referring to thinking through the consequences of other, bigger decisions, and choices about life.

[bctt tweet=”Sometimes we take chances, when we should be making choices. ” username=”donnajonesspeak”]

In Ephesians 4:17-18a the apostle Paul writes, “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles (i.e. unbelievers) do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding…”

Stay with me here, because this is just too good to miss!

The word “understanding” comes from the Greek work diánoia, (anybody remember diameter from High School geometry?) which refers to movement from one side of an issue to the other, to reach a balanced conclusion.

In other words, Paul urges us to think things through, to consider the consequences of our decisions, and to picture how choices play out from one side of our life to the other.

[bctt tweet=”What I decide today will affect what I deal with tomorrow.” username=”donnajonesspeak”]

Too often we live by chance rather than by choice. As a result, we end up standing in the rain, wishing we had thought things through just a little bit more.

In our marriage

In our parenting

In our profession

In our finances

In our health

In our friendships

In our relationship with God

In fact, the failure to think things through is so prevalent, we’ve developed a whole vocabulary to describe it:

I’ll take my chances

I’ll wing it

Live by the seat of your pants.

Do it on the fly

See what I mean?

And while there’s a time to be spontaneous, some things are just too important to be decided on a whim.  We certainly don’t want our choices to affect our chances; our chance for a healed friendship, a healthy body, or a happy relationship. Wise choices lead to wider chances for wholeness, happiness and health, in every single area of life.

So, as I sit here, in front of my computer, and you sit there, in front of yours, let me ask you a question, friend to friend:  Is there an area of your life you’ve been “winging it” when you should be wise about it? Is there anything you’ve left to chance that you should decide by choice?

If so, stop right now and think it through. Maybe you’ll find the following questions helpful as you move from one side of the issue to the other. I know they’ll help you gain understanding about your one and only life

Please don’t “take a chance” when you could make a choice.

Questions to Ask as You Consider Your Life

Picture a circle. Think about where you are right now (in your marriage, parenting, profession, health, spiritual life, finances, friendships, etc..) on one side of the circle. Picture where you want to be, directly across, on the opposite side of the circle. Answer the following:

1. Where am I right now? Where do I want to be?
2. Now picture a line between the two sides. Ask: Are my choices moving me forward, toward where I want to go, or are my choices moving me backwards, away from where I want to go?
3. In what ways have I left things to chance, when I really should have made a choice?
4. What is one decision I will make today that will move me forward to where I want to be tomorrow?

Lord, please help me have clarity in my understanding and my choices. Thank you that wisdom is yours, and you freely give it to those who ask. Amen.