Will the choice that you’re about to make, make you better or worse? Will it improve your life, or diminish your life? The fact of the matter is, it’s going to do one or the other. And because it is, it’s worth asking the question, will it make me better or worse?
The Clouding of the Question – People
But that question itself can be clouded by a whole lot of things. First, there can be people telling us that the choice that we are about to make will, in fact, make us better. They will look at us square in the face and say that without a doubt, this decision will improve our lives. And these people can put forth all kinds of reasons as to why it’s absolutely certain to do that. But do we see that kind of growth in their lives, or do we just hear that in their words? Are we hearing real life principles and sound values and a truly refined wisdom, or are we listening to flimsy agendas and self-proclaimed platforms and substance-less statements dressed in the finery of something that they are not? Will these choices make us better or worse?
The Clouding of the Question – Culture and Society
Second, the question of whether a choice is going to make things better or worse can also be clouded by whatever is vogue or trending. We want to be in step with the culture around us so as to not look the fool, or the ill-informed, or worse yet, the rebel. And it is assumed that if we are in step with the culture, and if we align these choices with whatever is currently trending, these choices are certain to make us better. They will improve our lives. And while the likelihood is that any improvement will be superficial and fleeting at best, they will only serve us until that which is vogue is no longer vogue, and that which is trendy is now outdated and a burden to whatever has now been proclaimed as new and cutting-edge. The question then remains…will these choices make us better or worse?
The Clouding of the Question – Ourselves
Thirdly, the question of whether a choice will make us better or worse is also clouded by our own greed and short-sightedness. We ask ourselves questions of what a decision will get us, and not so much if the decision is right regardless of what it gets us. We ask if our choices will position us nicely in whatever way that we want to be positioned, rather than asking how the decision positions us relative to sound principles and a set of morals to which we too often turn a blind eye. We ask how it will make us look to those around us whom we wish to impress, rather than ask how it will make us look once time has peeled away everything that is false and less than admirable, all of which will eventually reveal the true nature of our choices. And the question remains…will these choices make us better or worse?
A Thoughtful and Frank Evaluation
Will the choices in front of us make us better or worse? Will they improve our lives, or diminish our lives? That depends on who and what is informing those decisions. Is it people with questionable agendas, or is it a culture trending on a rogue wave of self-gratification, or is it our own lack of thoughtfulness and integrity? Whatever it might be, we might ask who and/or what is informing our decisions? And how much are they clouding that decision to the point that we will be set up to pay a potentially unimaginable price in making it…for we have all paid such prices before and we would be the fool to pay them again. For the wrong information, and the wrong motives, and the wrong value system will leave you on the wrong side of every choice, and choices that leave you on the wrong side never make your life better.
God Never Clouds Anything
Will the choices in front of us make us better or worse? And if Godly principles and Biblical values are not providing the guiding function for those choices, we are doomed to live out a life of ‘worse.’
“Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
- Proverbs 19:20-21
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC