There is a saying in real estate circles that the three most important factors with regard to buying a house are location, location, location. Well, I would like to say that the three most important rules with regard to making wise decisions are counsel, counsel, counsel.
I am amazed (and often outraged) at how many of our members have not been able to absorb the concept of godly counsel as even ONE of the main factors in arriving at the truth.
Organisations turn into "cults" (where leaders do all the thinking for followers) largely because followers are so inclined to let (and even ask that) leaders do all the thinking for them. Over and over I hear people in our community asking what they are "allowed" to do (as though they really are living in some kind of a prison), and the moment they find out that they are allowed to make their own decision, they act almost entirely on the basis of shallow and immature criteria... like some imprisoned rat finally set free and able to do whatever it wants, but with no sense of direction about where it is all leading.
When this happens, I feel that they have lost both ways. While listening to others they failed to think the issues through, and so they did, in fact, just become mindless zombies. And when they were cut loose, they expressed their mindlessness again with whatever was easiest.
I really do think it is time for some of our members to grow up and start acting like adults, thinking things through, and COUNSELLING about what they are going to do. I've said it before, but obviously I have to say it again, even when you are entirely on your own, you need to counsel. What you do is you IMAGINE what others would say. You question yourself and your willingness to hear something other than the first impulse that jumps into your head. You weigh up the pros and cons, more or less arguing with yourself, and you make a decision based on certain important guiding principals, and not just on the basis of what is the easiest and most fun thing to do.
I don't mean that we can't make intelligent decisions to do fun things, to have a rest, to splurge on something, to be entertained, etc. But we need to make those decisions based on COUNSEL. Just as you can counsel when all alone by being open to other options than the one that is easiest, so you can be closed to counsel while sharing with someone else. In other words, if you are seeking "counsel" from someone whom you already knows shares your own biases about the issue being discussed, then you may both be being mindless zombies with regard to the bigger picture.
The wonderful thing about real counsel is that it does not always lead to us making "hard" decisions. It comes from our trust in a loving God that his loving truth will not lay a heavy burden on us that we cannot carry. But we'll never find his grace if we are not open to his discipline.
Anyway, that's about it. I have it off my chest. Now, I hope that some of it will sink in.
Love, Dave
