Decisions

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 

—James 1:5

 

Each time I pray, I have always asked God to guide me because few of us, if any, know our purpose in life. We make decisions every day. It could be to decide a minor thing like whether we should text him back, or as momentous as whether we take a job and move our life to a place where no one knows our name. Do we take that step into the unknown. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

 

Sometimes, the decisions we make in life affect us for the rest of our lives; sometimes, they affect us only in the short term. As an LGBTQ+ person, one of our biggest decisions is when to come out to whom to tell our truth. Often, we do this with fear. Even though we might, we never know how someone will react. Will they love me as they always have? Will they look at me differently, good or bad? Will we see disgust and hatred in their eyes? Will they see compassion for the struggles we have endured to reach the decision to tell them this most significant part of our life?

 

John 16:33 tells us that “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  Jesus faced many difficulties on this earth, but he endured them for us. We, too, will face many difficulties, but with God’s guidance we can overcome those difficulties. Matthew 7:13-14 are verses that I think of often when making decisions, ““Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” It always reminds me to the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken.” The poem is one that is familiar to many of us:

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

When we make decisions in life, we have to trust that God will guide us in the right direction. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” There may be times when we will be devastated by our decisions, but even in those times, we learn something about ourselves. We will make mistakes. Romans 3:23 tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But he will lift us back up if we ask and follow his guidance.

 

Just like when we come out and we are being our true selves, John 4:24 lets us know, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” We have to live our truth and trust that God will be our guide.