Faith and Decision-Making

Today I had a chance to go skiing. The sun was shining and the snow was fluffy-looking. As I took the chairlift up for the first time, I looked behind me to see the amazing view of a wide silver lake in the distance. Wow! I hadn’t gone skiing in a long time, and I was excited.

But then I was consumed with getting down the mountain without falling. The thoughts zipped through my head: “Oh, that yellow patch could be ice!” “Yikes, there’s a kid behind me. Can he see me from there?” “That tree would really hurt!”

I had quickly composed a list of pros and cons. Pros: Sun, Fluffy snow, Fun. Cons: Don’t want to break leg.

By the end of the afternoon, I was grateful that I do not use a pros and cons list to make every life decision.

Yes, in deciding whether or not to go skiing, a pros and cons list may be helpful. But in making other decisions, we need to take a different approach.

This is where faith comes in. In his sermon, “What is Faith?” Rev. David Parke has written, “Faith is the inner confidence that enables you to live life on your own terms…” In the short excerpt I found of this sermon, Parke explains that faith allows a person to do what he or she believes is right—even when doing so requires great risks. Why?

Faith helps us gain a deeper understanding of the “pros” and “cons” in a given situation. Faith is nurtured through gratitude for our blessings, and through attention to our doubts. In developing our faith, we don’t just tally our blessings and our doubts, but we look into them deeply. Through this process, it may be that each of us can better understand who we are and what we are truly called to do.