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
The indecisive fellow is
the quintessential doubter. He tries to
see but every time he lifts his eyes up he comes upon an embankment with this large
writing on it “No!”
He rarely comes upon a
sign that screams to him, “Yes!” But when he does he ponders for an eternity
whether it is really true or his eyes are playing him a trick. If he wears spectacles
like I do he will remove them and gently rub his eyes and then put them on
again. He might have to repeat that gesture until the chickens have come home
to roost. All for want of proving whether what he is seeing is true or not.
Again he is like the
man who runs to the ruffle office with the winning ticket in his hand - and his
first question to the superintendent as he hands him his ticket is “Is it true
that I have won?”
That is the tragedy of the
perennial doubter. It reminds me of the story of the beggar Lazarus and the
rich man after their deaths. The rich man was in hell and the beggar was in
heaven. Then the heat in hell got rather hot. “Father Abraham,” the rich man
cried. He wanted Lazarus to be sent to his living brothers on the earth so “that
he might testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Father
Abraham replied that “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” But
the rich man persisted, “Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from
the dead, they will repent.” It is then that Father Abraham added this damper,
“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead” (Luk 16:19-31).
A congenitally indecisive
fellow is like that. You give him one proof, even the miracle of Lazarus coming
back to life itself, but he will still find it hard to believe. He will instead
ask for “one more” proof. But Christ knew such hard fellows. He saw through
their recalcitrance and informed them plainly that they were not fooling him,
“But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” Others he saw
through their stomachs, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not
because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were
filled.”
They saw his miracles and
even acknowledged that “Never man spake like this man.” But still they remained
unconvinced. They kept asking for “one more” sign up to the time he was dying on
the cross. Even now people will persist in their unbelief until Jesus comes
back again. And then it will be too late.
That is the tragedy. A
doubter, or an indecisive fellow jumps from one hurdle of unbelief to another. A
miracle does not assuage his unbelief, but rather it increases it. “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth?”
The
God of Yes
Paul when he wrote to
the Corinthians clearly affirmed that God is never indecisive.
“But as God is
true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God
in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2Co 1:18-20).
God has made a covenant
and He will never detract from it. Probably that is what we all should do so as
to dispel the confusion and to bring order in our lives again – and respect. Write
it down and stick it on your wall, “This is my final decision!”
Otherwise chronic
indecision will open floodgates of despair. And next it will lead invariably to
a cropping up of all manner of diseases and emotional malfunctions.
Going
with the Wind
The apostle James put it succinctly. In describing
the person who is a doubter, the writer compares him to a wave of the sea which
is “driven with the wind and tossed.”
An indecisive person also behaves like that. He is
at the mercy of the wind. He has no standing. And wherever the wind blows him
there he calls his home.
Paul compared such a person to a child who is
without a firm hold on life. “That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive” (Eph 4:14).
It seemed these believers were
not entirely certain about what to believe. Every teaching hanging out there sounded
a good teaching and they devoured it hungrily. They seemed not to know exactly what
they believed in and why they believed it. These were victims for
indecisiveness.
On the other hand Paul used several adjectives to
describe a stable person. He is “grounded and settled, and [is] not moved away.”
He is “rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith…” (Col 1:23;
2:7). That is the sight of a stable person. Like a strong firm tree, he is
“grounded and settled” and he cannot be moved away. That is a person who knows
what he believes in and why he believes it.
What is the one thing you believe in with your whole
life? Why do you believe it? Then go for it and don’t turn your back. Christ
showed who is a dependable person to him and who is not. He said the man who
ploughs but keeps looking at his back is not dependable. “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Ultimately it depends on whether you can depend on yourself or not.
An indecisiveness fellow is like a ship at sea
without anchor. And that is a very dangerous ship not only to its user but to
other ocean goers as well.
Prolonged indecisiveness will
inevitably lead to death. “To be great is to be misunderstood,” said Emerson.
Personally I doubt there is any greatness in that. “But wisdom is justified of
her children,” said Jesus Christ.
The
Cure for Indecision
Know what you want in life and stick to that. Tracking
too many paths invariably gives birth to indecisions. Seeing too many visions,
too many possibilities, too many ways. But we have only one head, and one
heart. Don’t get squeezed in the middle by a multiplication of desires.
It is the same when a man has a single woman and a
woman a single man. Trouble happens when dreams begin to cross each other at
night – and when all that is dreamt and seen looks good. Indecision will make a
fatal attraction in the end. You cannot split the heart into two without
killing it.
Otherwise dishonesty will set in and respectability will
fly outside the window. Make a road map and don’t deviate from your itinerary.
Believe in it and be ready to die in it.
Lack of principal causes dishonesty, causes lies,
causes shifting of goal posts. Have something you believe in – then believe it
to death. You will never be indecisive ever again after that. You will never
suffer emotional sickness again because of it.
Perhaps this is a good rule to kill indecision. If a
thing isn’t worth dying for in the first place then it probably isn’t worth
pursuing either. That will give you sound ground to stand on. It will give you principal.
I bet God meant the same thing when he said they
shall become one flesh. If she (or he) isn’t worth dying for now then the
plague of indecisiveness will never leave your house.
In recapitulation know what you believe in and why
you believe it. You do that and nothing will move you “away.” You will be rooted, grounded, and even more you will be settled. You will no longer be tossed
to and fro. You will no longer be a ship at sea without anchor.
Choose persistency, and consistency, rather than
slogging forwards and backwards. In the end whether you fail or succeed you
will at least be content and at peace with yourself - that what you did you did
very well and you gave it your best shot. In the end even the world will notice
that. And you shall have earned your accolades on this side of heaven.
Not so for the man who is still stuck at the cross
roads. Not so for the man who is still walking on the road left and right.
Watch out for him. Such is a danger to himself and other road users.
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