Deciding

Good conversations lead to clearer understanding, or to put it in Biblical terms, "As iron sharpens so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
One way that conversation brings clarity is by helping to identify common causes for seemingly different trends.
My world is full of new ways of thinking and acting that cause me much concern:

• The erosion of the recognition of the value of human life.
• The failure to clearly make a distinction between the life of a human and that of an animal.
• The changing views on sexuality and marriage.
• etc.

More and more, as I think about these trends, and talk about them with other thoughtful people, I become convinced that a lot of what is happening in my world stems from a basic tendency in the way many--dare I say most?--people in my culture think and decide. 
When I decide what to do there are three categories of information that my mind provides:

1. I seek correct information.  Especially if my decision involvessomething like arithetic, such considerations are incredibly important.  "Do I have enough money to buy this?"  "Is this bigger than I can carry?"  "How much gas will it take?"   This is the most straight-forward kind of thinking I do.  It is the kind of thinking that can most benefit from technology; rulers, calculators, and spreadsheets can be of great benefit.
2. I need to know what I should do.  This is seldom totally clear.  Someone asks me for money to buy some food.
   "Should I help?"
   "If I give money will I support a drug problem?"
   "Do I have time to go into a store with him to buy food?"
   "Should I make time?"
   Sometimes the first category of information provides help with these queries.  But most of the time I find that I don't have, and can't get enough dependable information.  Based on experience, looking to my moral compass, and trusting God, I have to decide what I should do.
3. Finally, there is what I want.
   I like my coffee black.  It's not that it makes more sense to drink it that way.  I'd be hard pressed to come up with a convincing argument that I should drink it that way.  I drink it that way because I like it that way.

As I look around at the problems in the world I see a lot of them related to too may people allowing the third kind of thinking to trump the first two.
It seems to me that some folk think they can change the time the sun will set, just because they want it to be different.
What should be is totally consumed by what I want. 
All decisions take on the character of "Cream or no cream?"
Wanting to flap my wings and fly won't save me if I jump off a cliff.
What I want often is harmful to you--sometimes to a lot of you.
If our world is going to become better more of us will have to be willing to say:
"I can't do what I want.  I just need to get over it."
"I won't do what I want.  It would be wrong."
"When I can do what I want, and there is nothing wrong with it, I'll enjoy it, but, I'll enjoy it with no illusion that the world owes me.

It's Something to Think About.