The Task at Hand

It is already September and I have not finished the Summer task I set for myself. That task was to clean out and rearrange the room in the house where the table saw and Bicycles are kept. Yes, it does sound a bit strange to keep these things together. The reason is that room has only one step to the sidewalk outside. That is useful because I prefer to use the table saw outside keeping the saw dust out of the house. It is also more convenient to get the bicycles out. This cleaning-rearranging task is complicated by the fact that there are also five bookshelves, the stereo system, and many, many record albums also in thai room. Every time I start my task, I am soon distracted. I find a book that I had forgotten I had or one that I had been looking for. After looking through them, those books just get moved from one pile on one shelf to another pile on some other shelf, defeating the task at hand. What I need to do is make decisions. Am I really ever going to read this book? Should I give it away or just recycle it? If I was able to make those decisions the room would have been cleaned and rearranged long ago. But it is hard to look into the future to see what I will or will not read or need or want in the future and so I become indecisive and the deadline for when I need more room (to store another bicycle) is looming quickly.

I know people who are able to make quick decisions. I also have noticed that most of them consider a smaller portion of the variables involved. I am sometimes envious of that ability but also note that, if I had made the decision, I probably would have chosen differently. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying I make correct decisions and those who decide quickly make wrong ones. I have made my own great share of wrong decisions. It just takes me longer to do so. Sometimes I wish that I did not have to make a decision. I delay my decision hoping that someone else will do it for me. But that is only escapism. We see that in many places. People who want their church or politician or friends to tell them what to do. That is what peer pressure is.  The fear that you might make the wrong decision and be ridiculed by others and instead of making your decision you go along with the crowd hiding yourself and living another person’s life. 

Jesus calls you to live in him, not to escape from making decisions or have someone else tell you what to do, how to act, or what to say. Instead he calls us to follow him and live by his example. God has also equipped you for the task. You have been gifted with many things and now it is up to you to decide what God is calling you to do with those gifts. Yes, you are going to make mistakes and choose the wrong task or the hardest way to carry it out or become distracted or . . . But that is where our decisions in Christ are different. We are forgiven those mistakes, picked back up and given another chance. Not once, not three times, but seventy time seven times (Biblical symbolism for every time). Whatever your task may be, pick it up, and carry it to Jesus. 

Peace,
Pastor John