"...when it comes to most of our daily decision, and even a lot of life's "big" decisions, God expects and encourages us to make choices, confident that He's already determined how to fit our choices into His sovereign will. Passivity is a plague among Christians. It's not just that we don't do anything; it's that we feel spiritual for not doing anything. We imagine that our inactivity is patience and sensitivity to God's leading. At times it may be; but it's also quite possible we are just lazy. When we hyper-spiritualize our decisions, we can veer of into implusive and foolish decisions. But more likely as Christians we fall into endless patterns of vacillation, indecision, and regret. No doubt, selfish ambition is a danger for Christian, but so is complacency, listeless wandering and passivity that pawns itself off as spirituality. Perhaps our inactivity is not so much on God as it is an expression of the fear of man, the love of the praise of man, and disbelief in God's providence."- Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something, p. 51, 52
Someone might push back and say, "Kind of sounds like he is advocating for a cavalier approach to decision making". I'm sure he has heard that objection before and hopefully in an upcoming blog interview we'll talk about that, but I think I tend to agree with him that for every 10 people that are too reckless in how they make decisions, there are 100 who over-spiritualize their passivity and fail to do anything.
Where do you think you fall?
2 comments:
You know, Malcolm Gladwell wrote, among his popular books, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking . Michael R. LeGault answered with Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye.
I've developed an interest in the work of Gary Klein and others on Naturalistic Decision Making, especially the model of Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD). In this context, Blink! Think! and RPD all seem to have something to say, basically that yes, we do make quick decisions, but however quickly we seem to make decisions, they are reasoned decisions, based on one's wealth of experience, which has created in our head an intricate web of schema, cases, etc. Plus, we operate from our world view, belief, faith, etc, which are big parts of what we know. Some situations call for quicker actions than others; others call for more deliberate, lengthier consideration.
Zach,
I agree with Kevin entirely. I know that some of my more charismatic brothers and sisters might disagree with me about waiting for, and expecting, direct guidance from God for daily decisions that aren't clearly addressed in the Bible.
However, I know that I myself have been too passive at times, telling myself either that "God is sovereign" or "I'm not sure what His will is for me in this situation." The latter viewpoint, especially, used to leave me near-paralyzed when it came to decision-making. I'm so glad that I got out of that way of thinking, although as the "God is sovereign" viewpoint shows, even Reformed theology can be *misused* or *misunderstood* in a way that leads to passivity.
God is sovereign, and we are also responsible for making decisions in accordance with Biblical commands and principles. Not that we shouldn't pray for wisdom, but passivity in the name of "waiting on God" can be very dangerous. I have learned that lesson the hard way.
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