“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
Seeing this quote today spurred me to write about something on my mind lately. What is the risk or perhaps even benefit of indecision regarding what you believe? Maybe the better question is, do you really believe what you say or think you do?
As I discuss faith with more and more people these days, I find that many are unsure about what they believe, especially related to God, Jesus, and the Bible. There seems to be more confusion than clarity for many regarding what a “Christian” is.
The Bible says, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways”. It is much simpler some would say to just go with the flow of what everyone else in your family, community, or culture thinks versus thinking for yourself and perhaps taking positions that are contrary to the majority of people in your culture. Some people like myself have never really had a problem being independent or even contrarian to the majority of people we have known. For some of us, it feels like a “badge of courage” to do so…but it is not necessarily helpful if our desire is to be accepted, have all the perks that come with “fitting in”, or to win friends and influence people. A majority of people don’t appreciate diversity or differences in others.
The other tendency is to manage our lives in separate silos of life categories. It seems easy these days to believe in something, but not necessarily want to express or make an issue our beliefs. Its ok to talk with people about the weather, sports heroes, compare our jobs, families, and social lives…but a majority nowadays seem to think it rude to talk about politics or religion. Many of us claim these areas as personal and off limits to anyone who doesn’t know us well or don’t agree with us in these areas.
What this causes in my observations is a society that is bland, polite, and boring.