First Decisions

April 24, 2024

Most sources I read say that the average adult makes between 33,000 and 35,000 decisions a day.

That seems like a lot of decisions, but as I sit here typing, I can see where it is probably not that far off. In just a few seconds, I made the following decisions (without really thinking about them other than trying to be aware I was making them). Just for fun I bolded the route I decided to take.

• Do I continue typing or do I stop?
• Do I look outside the window or at my surroundings inside?
• Do I look up at the trees, or down at the grass?
• Do I wonder where the birds are or whether the leaves on the trees are blowing harder today than other times?
• Am I going to spend time thinking about the need to pressure wash all that pollen and seeds that have fallen off the trees onto the patio or get back to writing?
• Do I think about the camping trip, pressure washing the patio, or writing my blog post?

I don’t know how long I sat here making those decisions because within each decision there was time thinking about the decision I’d made. But let’s just say it took me about 8 seconds to make 6 decisions that I knew of, and I’d bet there were several I wasn’t aware of. But let’s just stick with those 6 decisions in 8 seconds.

If I’m awake 15 hours a day, then that’s 54,000 seconds. And if I make 6 decisions every 8 seconds, then that’s 40,500 decisions in a day. How’s that for a non-scientific, statistically insignificant estimate?

Oh well, it was fun to think about and you can see why it takes me several hours to produce a 400 to 600-word blog post.

Here’s the real point of all this—How are we making our first decisions?

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Most of us have read or heard the accounts of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. That trip lasted 40 years because of the people’s decision to not trust God. The wandering generation did not enter the Promised Land, but by the time they got there a new generation entered the land under Joshua’s leadership.

As Joshua nears the end of his life, he offers the Israelites a choice. This first decision would determine how they made all future decisions. Not that different than what I found in my decision-making process mentioned earlier. I first made the choice to stop writing and let my mind wander to the outdoors. After that, many of my next decisions dealt with a wandering mind. If I had chosen to not stop writing, but to continue then my decisions would likely have been focused on writing and ultimately more productive.

Here’s what Joshua told the people.

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15, NIV)

They could choose disobedience to the God who had rescued them, or obedience. The earlier generation chose disobedience, and their consequence was 40 years of wandering and not entering the Promised Land.

I love that Joshua then, through his life example, proclaimed, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

I am far from holding up my life as an example for others, but I am honored to show you this plaque that hangs on the wall just to the right of my desk. My mom cross-stitched this for my family over thirty-five years ago. While my wife and I hold to it, I see it is an example of Mom’s legacy, not mine.

What is your first decision?