Sometimes we become so… Let me speak for myself—sometimes I become so overwhelmed with planning that I end up planning something to its literal death. I spend, or rather waste, so much time deciding what would be best.
But the plan is only the beginning. To see it through to completion, which is what we really want, we need to act and work and move on the plan. On the other hand, sometimes I get so antsy that I don’t want to plan at all. I just jump in and start doing something. But the truth is, what is best for me lies somewhere in the middle. Plan enough. Don’t plan until I no longer even have time to do the very thing that I had hoped to do. Leaving myself unfulfilled and sometimes even upset with myself and then have the nerve to be bad talking myself as if I did not have full control over my mind, my body, and my spirit to get up and go and work and do!
Fulfillment is on the other side of work. Fulfillment does not come to us. We have to go work to get it.
I would love if $100 million appeared in my bank account. The reality, though, is that it’s probably not going to happen! You might say, “Just play the lottery!” Well, I don’t—and you can’t win what you don’t play. Even the lottery takes work. LeBron James wouldn’t be LeBron James if he just talked about playing basketball. He’s LeBron James because he actually plays basketball.
When I’m not careful, I will expend so much time, effort, energy talking or planning the thing without actually doing the thing. And the only person I can be “upset” with is myself.
And the truth is, I would much rather make the “wrong” choice in doing something than make no choice and do nothing. At least if I make a “wrong” choice, I will have learned for next time—to make a better, more informed choice. People often say, “Well, I’m beginning again,” but you’re never truly starting from scratch. If you pay attention, you’ll begin not just again from zero, but begin again with wisdom. “The wisdom of experience” is what the Bible calls it.
But if you ignore your experience and pretend that every restart is from zero instead of from 5, 10, or 30, the only person you discredit is yourself. So wouldn’t you rather reimagine life from 5 or 30 steps ahead rather than from the starting line?
My commitment and proclamation? To choose something quickly. To give myself a limit: three breaths, a five-minute meditation, or a dance to one song. How can I clear my head and make a decision from a place of goodness, from a place of deep knowing, instead of thrashing about and hoping for the best?
Closing Prayer
God gives us courage—courage to move, courage to act, courage to do, courage to simply be!—because we know there is no wrong choice when everything works out. Everything works together for our good because You love us! Isn’t that enough? Shouldn’t that be enough? Thank You that it is enough. I am deciding, I am choosing that it is more than enough. Help us remember when our humanity inevitably takes over and we forget again! Who we are is already enough, and what we do when we do it enough, too. It is already so. Amen.
