You Already Know

We’ve all been there. A rock. A hard place. And there in between...you. Faced with a decision that seemingly has no good outcome. You’re standing at a crossroads, afraid to move forward because neither path looks safe or pleasant. So instead you create a third, equally painful option: you stand still, laboring and stressing over the decision, fixating on what you stand to lose, and subjecting yourself to endless anxiety with a stream of what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. In your bid to avoid a temporary hardship, you take on an indefinite one.

Maybe it’s a career choice. Could be a relationship. Even something as simple as committing to plans or other obligations can be the source of your turmoil. Whatever it is that you can’t seem to decide on, I would just remind you of the Rush song, “Freewill”. Geddy Lee sings “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” And I get it. I really do. I’ve been indecisive my whole life. I can remember 10-year-old Bryan reading “Goosebumps” choose-your-own adventure books. With so many fingers stuck in the pages to hold my place, you’d think I was trying to knead it instead of read it. See, I just wanted to make sure, if a choice didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I could retrace my steps and do it over. But, I’m sad to say, we don’t have that luxury in real life. We can’t go back; we can only go forward...or we can stay stuck where we are.

Allow me to alleviate the existential dread with two very significant truths for those who have God in their lives. The first is that where no clear choice exists, rather than considering both options equally wrong, we can consider them equally right. Because God promises us that, “In their hearts people plan their paths, but the Lord directs their steps.” -Proverbs 16:9. You see, when you decide to walk with the Lord, He doesn’t just put you on a moving sidewalk that takes you exactly where you need to go. He walks beside you. There’s no guarantee the road will always be easy. He may even let you take a detour. But He won’t let it go to waste, and He will always guide you back when you’re seeking His will. Just read about the apostle Paul, who thought he was serving God until Jesus literally stopped him in his tracks to tell him how his choices were hurting the Lord, and set him on an entirely different course.

And the second truth is, that in cases where there actually is a right or wrong choice, you likely already know which is which. You’re just avoiding it because you don’t like the answer. We all remember the story of Jonah and the whale. God asked Jonah to do something, Jonah didn’t like it so he avoided it and took a different path. How did that work out for him? Yes, the path God wanted Jonah to take was a hard one. But the path Jonah decided to take was hard, too. The difference is, on one difficult path he was walking away from God and further into hardship, and on the other he would have been walking with God through the hardship. Walking with God always brings peace and hope even in the hardest stuff.

We need to realize that God still speaks to us, because those who have put their faith in Jesus have the Spirit of the Lord alive in them. Read your Bible so you’ll know His voice. And when the Spirit speaks...listen. I’ll leave you with this excerpt from the poem, “The Gate of the Year”, by Minnie Louise Haskins:


And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night...

Bryan Vickers
Worship Pastor