“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” -The Risen Jesus1
Randy’s Introduction
Nobody wants to make the wrong decision. That’s what Descartes was trying to avoid when he coined the phrase “I think, therefore I am.” He shut himself alone in a room, peeled back everything of which he was uncertain, and concluded that the only thing he could be sure of was that he and his thoughts actually existed. Of course, that didn’t stop other philosophers from deciding that they weren’t sure that Descartes ever existed, or, for that matter, that they exist. As in the movie “The Matrix” it could all be a fabrication. Thankfully Speer offers us an alternative to this existential navel gazing. We should simply take our uncertainty head-on by making a decision.
There’s a real benefit to this practical approach. If we make a decision and act upon it we’ll find out, sooner or later, whether we are right or not. Of course, taking this approach requires us to be willing to be wrong and to admit it, a skill that seems a bit rare in our day. But if we sincerely seek the way forward through decision and action we will find our way eventually.
And that’s not the only advantage of this approach. If we take Speer’s advice and make a habit of making decisions we will find a really valuable human quality developing within us. This process of making decisions in the face of uncertainty, testing their validity with action, and then pushing forward when we are right, even when fear and doubt push against us, makes us courageous people. And who doesn’t want to be a courageous person?
In the chapter that follows, Speer urges us to develop the habit of deciding which will strengthen our courage. So without further ado, chapter 13 of Speer’s “A Christian’s Habits,” “The Habit of Decision.”
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