Better Decisions: What will your story be?
Our greatest power in life is our power to decide. Pausing to ask ourselves great questions helps us to make better decisions. This week, we are asking the legacy question. What story do you want to tell? Or, more directly, what is the story that will be told?
Stories are the essence of legacy. Each decision you make is a seed and is writing the story of your life. Every private decision has public implications. But, when it comes to decision-making, we rarely think in terms of story because decisions are now. In contrast, story and legacy are later. The biggest problem that we have in our decision-making is that we make decisions based on emotions and appetite instead of stepping back to consider the grand narrative.
In scripture, Joseph did the right thing by turning down Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39:6-10 (NIV). Evenso, Joseph was imprisoned for eight years. Before that, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph’s story seemed to be going in the opposite direction of the dream God gave him, but he continued to make good decisions based on the grander narrative God was writing. After more than 20 years since he was sold into slavery, Joseph was in a position to exact revenge on his brothers. But he chose not to. Instead, he remembered his dream and realized that in everything he had been through, God had a purpose.
Oftentimes you cannot make sense of the story God is telling in the moment, but if you pause to consider the narrative and keep making good decisions, you, like Joseph, will know that God was with you each step of the way. We know we make the right decisions when God gets the glory in our story. Noone or nothing can stop the story God is writing in your life. When you give your life to Jesus, you are giving him the pen as the author and finisher of your faith. If Jesus is the author of your faith, who is the author of your fear? Who are you allowing to author your story? Why not make the decision to write a new story that honors God today?
