Their
heart is divided_ Hos 10:2
No
man can serve two masters_ Mat 6:24
And
Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two
opinions?_ 1Ki 18:21
A
double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Jam 1:8
I
know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or
hot. Rev 3:15
These
are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest_ 2Pe 2:17
Whether Hamlet was
really mad or merely putting on an “antic disposition” is not the question
here.
The tragedy with Hamlet
is that in the end he never decided early enough what he ought to have decided
early enough. Prolonged indecision can make one insane or prove fatal. In
Hamlet both these results proved true.
Indecision nearly
killed Lot once except the angels plucked him out of his “lingering.” His wife
though wasn’t lucky. She turned back to look and that was her last look. She
hadn’t quite decided whether to go or not to go.
If you have decided you
have decided and don’t look back. It can prove fatal. But other times deciding
can be the easier part. The harder part is following up on that decision. That
is called procrastination. It is the cousin to indecisiveness.
The instruction from
God to Abraham had been definite once. “Get thee out of thy country, and from
thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land I will shew thee.”
But it would seem Abraham had
left matters of deciding to his father, Mr. Terah. “And Terah took Abram his
son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his
son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go
into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.”
Mr. Terah took matters over but
he didn’t finish what he started. For when he arrived at Haran, Mr. Terah and
family booked a place, including Abram, and “dwelt there.” But the instruction
had been to go to Canaan. And the instruction had been to Abram and not Mr.
Terah. But indecision seems to have
weighed heavily on Abram. To go or not to go with his family?
In the end his family delayed
him. Friends or family can delay you in arriving at your destination. The
decision to “decide” is a personal initiative. Don’t bring your parents or
siblings into it. They will delay you.
On a fictional note, Hamlet
delayed acting on instructions from his father’s ghost to kill Claudius his
uncle who had murdered Hamlet’s father and married his mother. From his initial
indecision were added more indecisions. Eventually Hamlet’s indecisions killed
not only him but many members of his royal family.
We all come to the
valley of decision at one time or another in our lives. We have to get out of
it early or we will be delayed in our enterprises, or worse we can die in the
valley.
Unfortunately we can
never take leave from deciding in this life until we are dead and our mind is
shut and closed. For technically one cannot refuse to decide – for in refusing
to decide that in itself comprises a decision – or a judgment. And to refuse to
judge is to refuse to think.
The
Causes of Indecision
Sometimes it is not a
refusal to think – but to think too much, or too widely. Many options present
themselves, and all of the options are genuine possibilities. It is not one
woman but all of them that have the potential to make good wives. But then one
can only marry one wife. If all possibilities look good then close your eyes
and pick one. Then get married to it and live with it until death do you part.
Other times it is not
the lack of ambition that is the problem, but over-ambition. You want it all.
You run not after one but after all. In the end you will lose all. A rolling
stone gathers no moss. It lands clean and swept at the valley below.
Other causes are lack
of conviction, doubts and too many fears. “What will they think?” “What if I
fail?” “Where do I go from here?” “How long have I got to live?”
A perfectionist streak
is another cause of indecisiveness. Remember only God is perfect. No matter how
good or “perfect” we think we are, in God’s sight we are but vanity. Being
humble will prevent the perfectionist streak from running riot. Be not “over
wise: [for] why shouldest thou destroy thyself?” The preacher also boldly affirmed that “in
much wisdom is [also] much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth
sorrow.” Find place for humour whenever
you can. Life is hard enough without deliberately adding further sorrows to it.
Besides the more we increase in the knowledge of God, the more we shall also
increase in the knowledge of our true
selves - that we are nothing, and are far from perfect. The challenge is to bring a man to this simple understanding,
for everybody is perfect in his own sight.
For the perfectionist I
say let us temper our seriousness of life. We are only human. God knows and He
understands that. His mercies reach from here to heaven. Having said that let
me also add that – yes - God understands but God is also not mocked. In the end we shall all harvest what we shall
have planted in the gardens of our lives.
At our death we shall
all leave behind some work that will not quite have gotten finished. So don’t
be too hard on yourself. Only Jesus finished his. But that was only on earth. He
has more work still going on in heaven.
Other causes of
indecisiveness are lack of stability, consistency, and lack of patience.
Types
of Indecisive Fellows
Life is like a buffet
of sumptuous choices. Some people want to pack everything into one plate. The
indecisive fellow is the one who holds up the queue. To eat three pieces of
chicken or four? To eat roast beef or boiled? To eat lamb or crocodile? To eat
fish or pork? To eat five or ten pieces of chapattis?
Some, presumably the
chronic lot, will then pack everything on one plate. But after they take their
seats a pervasive guilt will inundate them like a plague. Perhaps they packed
up too much? Perhaps everybody is watching them? Some will leave it all
altogether and stand up and walk home hungry. The courageous will unashamedly pull
the plate to themselves, and work on it after they are done with theirs.
Indecision makes for
veritable grief and anguished suffering.
Some have drawn up neat time tables but they are
notorious for never completely arriving at a decision to stick to them. They
might do it for a day or two. After that all hell breaks loose in their lives.
Others are never quite sure they have locked up.
They wake up at midnight to go and confirm. Then the perfectionist comes along.
Before they sleep everything has got to be in its place, everything. These take
longer to sleep just wondering if everything is truly in its place.
The flagellant is an addict. This is an incorrigibly
indecisive fellow. His abode is in the musky and misty existential margins of
this life as whips of indecision upon indecision mercilessly lash his mind –
and life – and he is greatly enamoured of it. This is a demonic impulse and
only the power of Christ can deliver such a one.
So is the perfectionist. So is the malignantly
indecisive. This lot can walk half a mile to the right only to turn suddenly to
the left and walk back half a mile - before finally deciding to walk to the
right after all. In the morning this man will still not have arrived to his
destination. As a matter of fact this man walks all his entire life and never
quite arrives at his destination.
Another lot is ever stuck at the cross roads
wondering whether to go to the right or left. They are perpetually stuck at the
cross-roads and never quite make a move.
What sort of an indecisive fellow are you?
(To be continued).
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