Hard Decisions

I should be showering right now, but instead I want to share something with you, my friends. I woke up early and went for a run this morning. Like booty early. Alarm went off at 4:45am early. When you run at dark thirty in the morning, it's best to run through your hood so you have some light, but there isn't that much road to run in my own section of Paradise Point, so I like to head up past the stables and the ohsoscarydark stretch of Stone to Watkins Village and Berkley Manor. In the dark. Because trail running in the dark is just awesome.  I always think that running in the dark, when I can't see the trail in front of me or my feet or anything really is the hard part, but it's not. It's making the loops through the neighborhood because I continually encounter intersections- decision points. I'm constantly presented with an easy way out. Do I keep going straight or should I just turn left now and head home. Every turn is a decision to make: Do I want to give up now or keep pushing? Do I want to run 3 miles? Do I want to run more like I had planned? Heck, even every step at some stretches is a hard decision. The decision to KEEP going when I could just stop. Nobody is watching. Nobody cares. But I always feel better when I make the hard decision. When I hang left instead of right, knowing its the difference between 4 miles and 4.5 miles. It doesn't matter that nobody sees, nobody cares, because I KNOW the difference.


It's this way in life, too. How many decisions do we make every. single. day. that seem unimportant or little, but they add up? A while back I posted this picture to my facebook page after a conversation with a friend. She was really upset that some of our mutual friends proclaimed to love Jesus, but the fruit of this didn't show in their lives. They loved each other, yes, and they did it well, but she didn't think they loved others. They weren't doing anything outside their circle to live the Gospel. I told her I thought we all had different seasons of life and that while many of us had small children, deployed husbands, were far from our families, etc, that maybe right now the best way they could be a witness for the love and grace of God through Jesus was to be the best wife and mother and friend they could be- modeling love and grace and patience and kindness.

Well, I was thinking about that this morning and I think I was right and I was wrong. I think it's true that at this time in our lives for many of us, making it to the soup kitchen to serve weekly, arranging childcare, working at the animal shelter, going on missions across the world maybe isn't the best way to serve our families and others right now, BUT being loving and gracious and kind and serving our children and husbands isn't really enough, either, if we're spending our free time shopping and indulging in ourselves constantly while others world wide are starving, living as slaves, unable to provide for their basic necessities. Ignoring the problems of the world and continuing to fill our homes and our lives with STUFF isn't REALLY being a good lighthouse, is it?

I don't mean to condemn. I really don't. I'm living the "American Dream" just like the rest of my friends, and most of you, but I'm trying hard to make the hard decisions every day. When it would be easier to give into my inclination to buy that pretty new scarf because fall is coming and I saw someone look, oh just so cute with one the other day, I make the decision to love one of the 5 scarfs I already own. When it would be easier to serve myself, I try to decide to serve others. Even in the little things. I challenge you to do the same. I know many of you think my BNN challenge is obnoxious or annoying or un-doable (it's not, btw) maybe you'll consider making a harder decision and fasting this October. Everytime you're tempted to buy that new necklace just because or a cute new pair of jeans or boots, think about what you already have. When you're excited that cooler weather is upon us, think about what that means for the family that can't afford to heat their home in the winter. When you want to buy that green jacket because you're tired of pink that you picked out last year, think about the woman that is probably tired of the holes in her jacket, and would love one that fits and isn't falling apart and could care less about the color. Take the month of October and fast in this way- when you are about to make a purchase- stop. think. And if it's unnecessary, don't do it. Take the money you would have spent and give it to the local homeless shelter, the food bank, the soup kitchen, the Baptist Children's Home down the road, wherever. Or at least put it aside and save that money to be spent on some quality outing with your children or family. It's only 31 days. You can do pretty much anything for 31 days, right?? It's a great exercise in self control (and we know that the Lord has given us a spirit of self-control, right??) and an opportunity to make some hard decisions. You can do it! I know you can. One step at a time.