2 Chronicles 20 - Your Approach to Decision Making

Tom Shrader explores how Christians can make exceptional decisions in an average world by learning from King Jehoshaphat's response to crisis in 2 Chronicles 20. He emphasizes that believers have a tremendous advantage in decision-making because life is an "open book test" - God either speaks directly or provides principles to apply. Shrader teaches that when facing decisions, Christians should gather facts, consult Scripture, seek godly counsel, examine their hearts for sin, and then act on their best wisdom, trusting that "the battle is not yours, it's God's."

“Life is an open-book test, so everything that you face in life, God's either gonna speak to you directly or he's gonna give you principles that you can apply.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to be Exceptional in an Average World

Recorded: April 07, 2011

Duration: 39 min

Themes: wisdom, decisions, discernment, guidance, trust, battle, crisis, counsel, facing major decisions, struggling with choices, seeking direction, in crisis, business owner, parent, young adult, new believer

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 20:1-20, Deuteronomy 17:18-20, 2 Chronicles 17, 2 Chronicles 18

Theological Themes: divine guidance, biblical wisdom, providence, gods sovereignty, spiritual discernment, scriptural authority, godly counsel, sanctification

Full Transcript

Introduction to Making Decisions

Welcome to the third session in this six-session series on how to be exceptional in an average world. Today we'll have a lot of stories and illustrations as we dig into 2 Chronicles 20. We've already looked at mastering the mundane - how to find purpose and meaning in the ordinary moments that make up most of our lives. Then we talked about finding stability in the midst of change. Today's topic flows naturally from there: making decisions.

I've discovered that even now, when many people find themselves in difficult situations, if you unpack it, you can often trace it back to bad decisions made along the way. Here's a true story: I was talking to a guy the other day who was relating the story of a friend of his. This friend bought his house for $100,000, but then the value went up to $300,000. So what did he do? He borrowed against that equity and refinanced. Then he got a boat, then he got this, then he got that. Now he's lost his job and is upside down on everything.

All of his friends want to rally and have a bake sale for him. But honestly, he made the decision to go there. That was his choice, and I think he ought to feel the burden of that decision. Now, I wouldn't say that to him directly - I'd only say it to his friends. Are there legitimate people with legitimate hurt? Absolutely, and nobody has more compassion for them than I do. I'm a sucker for that stuff. But you look around and see bad decisions everywhere - at upper levels, lower levels, you know it's true.

The Advantage of Wisdom in an Average World

In your individual life, how do we go about making decisions? The key ingredient we're looking for in this whole process is wisdom. Remember, we're talking about being exceptional in a world that's very average. I always told my kids, if you can show up on time and give the correct change, you're in the top 10%. The bar is not that high - it's not that difficult to do those basic things.

I went to school at a little liberal arts college called St. Ambrose College (now St. Ambrose University). I remember sitting in the library after orientation as an incoming freshman, meeting with my academic advisor. She was going through all this information, and I was stunned at how much liberty I was about to experience - how much fun I could see on the horizon. She asked if I had any questions, and I said yes. This had come up in high school, so I asked what grade point average you needed to graduate. She said 2.0. It was the first time in my life I had a goal.

Let me give you the follow-up, because I was elected freshman class president. This is true - I was telling the staff guys about this the other day and they love it. I ran for reelection, but I didn't have enough hours to be a sophomore. It was a perfect deal.

Learning from Principles, Even Without Knowing Their Source

In my life, I look back at that time - as lost as I was with all the partying and sin wrapped up in there - and it's amazing. I didn't make godly decisions, but looking back, they were based on godly principles I didn't even know I had. Especially in areas like finance, these were things I learned from my dad that I had put in place.

Now when I say "we," let me define that. Those of us who are Christians - what does it mean to be a Christian? It means you are a follower of Christ. You've come to that point in your life where you understand that your sin has separated you from God, and there's nothing you can do to fix it. That's religion - there's nothing you can do to fix it. But Christ died, and if you believe that He died and rose from the dead, and you trust Him and Him alone for your salvation, that's what a Christian is. That's the definition we'd pull from scripture.

You and I have a huge advantage over the rest of the world when it comes to decision-making. Life is an open-book test. We'll go through this a couple of times today, but everything you face in life, God's either going to speak to you directly or He's going to give you principles you can apply.

Understanding Wisdom

What you're looking for is wisdom. In your outline, you have Webster's definition: Wisdom is the power to judge rightly, to follow the soundest course of action based on knowledge, experience, thinking, and understanding. It's really about looking at life and learning.

There's knowledge - you don't want to minimize that. There's the inflow of information. You get it through books, through the internet, through whatever sources. You're going to learn it in a variety of ways, including firsthand. But I think a great way to learn is secondhand learning.

Learning from Others: The Example of Bill Putney

This study used to be over at what was La Posada, and almost every morning there was a guy there named Bill Putney. Some of you will remember Mr. Putney. I met him through Larry and immediately said this is a guy I want to know. About once a month, I would have breakfast with him. We'd leave the study, go over to the grill, and talk about life.

Mr. Putney was in charge of reconnaissance for the 29th Division when they landed on the beaches at Normandy. He used to farm what is now the southeast corner of 44th and Thomas. He and his wife wanted to build a house out where nobody would bother them - right over here, just down on this side of Camelback.

Mountain. He was this tough old farm guy, tough guy, hard charging guy, pound down a drink guy, and then God saved him. So we would sit. He had a buddy who was from Burlington, Iowa, just 80 miles south of where we were. His dream was to have breakfast in Paris and dinner in Burlington. At the end of his life, he got on the Concorde and did it.

He wrote a book called The Salvation of a Doomed Zumi. Zumi was an air fighter pilot in the Pacific, shot down, and the Japanese were coming to get him, the Americans were coming to get him, they rescued him. Then they had a third guy who wrote the weather report or the weather prediction for Poor Richard's Almanac. I'd sit with these guys and just suck in the information. That's another way to get knowledge.

Knowledge Through Personal Experience and Thinking

Then you get knowledge through your own personal experience. Here's something that's not valued much: thinking. Do this - go to work today and just get in your office, get the beverage of choice, get yourself a coffee, tea, soda. Don't shoot me drinking early in the morning in there, so don't do that. You sit there and somebody's going to come by and see you in there.

The word's going to spread - he's in there - and somebody's going to come in and go, "You okay? Yeah, what are you doing?" "Thinking." It's going to go all through the office. There's somebody thinking. We got a guy in a cube who's thinking. Then your supervisor's going to come down and the supervisor's going to say, "You okay? Yeah, what are you doing?" "Thinking." "We don't pay you to think," which is why all these companies are screwed up.

In that process, that's all we're doing. All we're championing is really, in one sense, something called common sense.

The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy

There was a book that was written now, I'm going to say maybe a decade ago, maybe even longer now, and it was called the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. In the introduction, the very first paragraph - and this is really helpful, I think - they write this. Although it's true that no two humans know exactly the same thing, they often have a great deal of knowledge in common. By the way, what is that called? Common sense, that's exactly right. That's where the phrase comes from. It's just common, it's like everybody knows that.

You don't borrow 110% on a loan. Everybody knows that. To a large extent, this common knowledge or collective memory allows people to communicate, to work together, to live together. It forms the basis for communities. If it is shared by enough people, it's a distinguishing characteristic of a national culture.

When you say, again, there's no race, don't read anything into this. When you say, "I want diversity," well, pretty soon you're accommodating every thought and you've lost your national DNA. Here's what's interesting because we live in that world where things are changing, changing, changing, changing, changing. What you knew yesterday, facts, information, all that's growing. They've tucked this in here: 96% of the literate culture is undisputed territory, so that would be fact. Most striking of all, 80% of literate culture has been in use for more than a hundred years. It's really simple principles.

The Enduring Nature of Common Sense

Susan and I were gone, we were in Coronado for a week and watched a lot of TV. I watched an interview with a gal that's just written a book on the history of common sense. Just talking about developing that. This is what we knew. You just sit around. You sit around and go, this is what your dad taught you. This is what his dad taught him. This is what your mom communicated to you. It's just what you know. It's just kind of what you understand.

Well, for us, we add to it this common sense, but now this ability to tap into real power, and that's the power of God. So we're going to make mistakes. But we should make fewer. We should make more sound decisions than just the average person.

Examples of Poor Decision-Making

I watched an interview the other day with a kid who's taking steroids, an athlete. He had his first heart attack at 21 and his second kind of mild attack at 23. They asked him, "When did you stop taking these?" And he said, "What? I haven't."

There's a survey with I can't remember how many college athletes. They said, "If you for five years could win every title and set every record, but you knew at the end of five years you were going to die, would you take this pill?" 52% said yes. But none of those matter because it doesn't look to me like there's too many of you on steroids in here. A little more Lipitor and Cialis, I would guess.

Here's one that will help you. They interviewed 3,000 women, Red Book did the study. They asked them, "Would you marry the same man again?" Well, you're in kind of a minority. 90% said no. I know. I don't think Susan answered.

Spurgeon on Wisdom

Let's turn it this way. Let's go into Spurgeon. I love Spurgeon. Spurgeon is one of the great old preachers. He's part of that kind of 1860 generation. So you had him going in England, Civil War going here, Marx going in Russia. He was a colorful character. They used to get on him a lot about humor. They said he brought too much humor into his presentation. They didn't like the way he dressed, and he said, "I dress to be comfortable." I think that's admirable.

He was a cigar smoker, and they said, "Will you stop?" And he said, "I'll stop when it's to excess." And they said, "What is excess?" "Two at a time." So that's Spurgeon.

But Spurgeon also is this magnificent mind. Spurgeon should have a connect for you. There's a biography on Spurgeon. It's not an in-depth one. It's probably about 350 pages, written by a guy by the name of Arnold Dallymore. It's just on Spurgeon.

Spurgeon talks about wisdom. Here's what he says: "Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, but they are..."

There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. So there's the Christian view. Here's a secular view: Clear thinking without knowledge does not guarantee a sound decision. A sense of knowledge without clear thinking isn't any better. A sound decision is the child of a marriage between clear thinking and relevant knowledge.

I had a meeting yesterday with the guy who handles our finances. Susan wasn't there, but I was with him just to say, where are we? How are we planning? Let's be prudent. Barring some sort of huge meltdown, where are we with those kinds of questions? He'll bring all the things, run all his projections, charts and graphs and all this stuff. I'll listen. But we bring, and I'm hammering at this now, we bring the word of God to it.

Real Life Examples of Decisions Without Wisdom

Here's another story. I'm talking to a guy and I said, how are you doing? He said, I can't stand this girl I'm married to. I said, really? That's not good. He said, it's awful. I said, why is it awful? He said, we can't agree on anything. I said, what do you mean? He goes, kids. We can't agree on how to raise our kids. She wants to do this, I want to do this. Money. She wants to do this, I want to do this. We don't agree on anything.

I said, what's the fundamental problem? He said, I'm a Christian, and she's not a Christian. I'm a Christian, and I want to follow these biblical principles. So I said to him, how long have you been married? Fifteen years. You've been married fifteen years. How long have you been a Christian? When were you a Christian? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Oh, no, no, no, no. I've been a Christian all my life.

Let's work this through. Here's the problem. God told you. I said, have I ever met your wife? No. I said, I'll bet she's cute. I'll bet she's got a nice little body on her. I'll bet she's just got like a perky thing. I'll bet she's perky. He said, she's very pretty. You're not going to put up with all this and have her not be perky. So here's the deal. God told him you can't marry, shouldn't marry somebody who's not a Christian. He did it. There's consequences. That's not stupid. That's just not wise.

Maybe one more true story. There's a gal that comes to our house one day. She wants to meet. She's from our church. Susan and I meet with her. She said, I've got this guy that's asked me to marry him. I said, tell me about him. He's really handsome. She goes through the whole litany. I said, where does he go to church? He doesn't go to church. Can you be a Christian and not go to church? Sure. But it would be a flag. I'd want to know.

We go through it and the reality is he's not a Christian. I said, you can't marry him. She said, but he's religious. I said, you can't marry him. She leaves. An hour later the phone rings. Can I speak to Tom Schrader? I said, yeah, this is me. He said, I'm this guy. Did you just tell her not to marry me? I said, well, yeah, I did. He said, I'd love to come over and talk to you. I said, well, how big are you?

I'll give you the end of that story. He comes to Christ, which I said, okay, let's let the ink on this deal dry a while. Now God uses them in a major way in their church and all around. But see, it's obedience along the way.

The Biblical Foundation for Decision Making

Here's an Old Testament story. If you look at that first reference there, 2 Chronicles 17:18-20, that's not the right reference. That should be Deuteronomy 17. What God's doing is laying out the principle for the king. He's saying this: "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left."

Here's our first principle: If we're going to make decisions, we need to be lifelong learners of the word of God. When He talks about the law there, He's talking about God's word. For us, when we're facing a decision, it's an open book test. I want to know, what does God say about this? Does God speak into it?

Applying Biblical Wisdom to Dating

Dating is a really easy one. Can you date whoever you want? I think so, but here's what God says. Let's bring wisdom to it. God says, if you're a Christian, you can only marry a Christian. Most people you marry, you're engaged to. Most people you're engaged to, you date seriously. Most people you date seriously, you date casually. Everyone you date casually, you had a first date.

So I would go back and say, why would you put yourself... I'm talking to a young man or young woman or middle-aged man or woman or whatever it is. Why would you put yourself in a situation where you're going to start hanging around with this likable, cute, handsome guy, cute gal, when you know you can't be any more than pen pals? Why would you do it?

Now, can you? Yep. Is it wise? I don't know. I couldn't. I'll just tell you my heart. If she was cute enough, I'd find a way. I'd change the rules. She'd be a Christian by the end of the night somehow. I'd find a way. I'd get a declaration. I'd get Billy Graham to say something or whatever it was. I'm just being dead honest with you. I know my heart. Now, you're maybe not all like me, but do you see

When You Don't Know What to Do

So all of a sudden, we go now to 2 Chronicles 20, and we see a king, Jehoshaphat, and he has an issue. The word comes to him. Look at it in verse 2: "A great multitude is coming against you." It's the Moabites and the Ammonites. Let me see if I can find it. I think I have it in here from the Message, the paraphrase of that verse. It says this: "A huge force is on its way from beyond the Dead Sea to fight you. There's no time to waste."

So here you go. He's got to respond to this incident that he has in front of him. So here comes this big opportunity. What do you do? Here's a big question: What do you do when you don't know what to do?

So you're driving along, like I'm driving over here today, and common sense and wisdom would dictate, especially if you're just familiar with this—the light at Lincoln and Scottsdale is red. I don't need to process that. I don't need to think about that. I don't need to pray about it. Stop. So there are certain things that are like that. But a lot of them, I've got to think about them.

The Natural Reaction to Crisis

So this word comes to him. Look what he does. First of all, he has a reaction. What is it in verse 3? He was afraid. You go to the doctor. You get the report. You meet with the banker. He tells you the situation. They call you in. It's the last Friday in December. The boss calls you in—not a good sign, by the way—and says, "We're going to downsize and we're going to start with you." Now, all those things are coming up. What do you do?

What I don't want to do is sugarcoat it. It's totally understandable to have the immediate reaction to be afraid.

A Lesson from T-Ball

I'm coaching T-ball, so we've got a T-ball game. This is Saturday, and it's 4, 5, and 6 year olds, and the only reason I'm doing it is because Braden and Yale are playing. He's not 4 yet. Yale's only 3. Yale's about as high as one of these tables. He's a very small 3-year-old. I don't know what his skill level will be, but mentally he's just got it. He really does. He's a totally different kid.

So he's got them, and there are kind of places of activity in T-ball. The pitcher and the first baseman are kind of the two key guys, maybe shortstop a little bit, but kind of all the balls are in there. So Yale's playing first, and you hang out on the field. You're hanging out to just kind of reorient them after every hit. So Yale's at first, got him where I want him. Caden is a young kid, just a sweet kid, but every time he hits the ball, he runs straight to the pitcher's mound. And he's a wonderful little kid. He just needs a little direction. I've got him behind me, and then over here is Zoe, who I'm really starting to love. She's a pretty good little player.

So I've got Yale here. He's not old enough to play even yet. Zoe asks me a question, I turn around. I turn back around, and there's a 6-year-old left-handed kid hitting. So he hits the equivalent of whatever a 6-year-old's shot is, and it's a one hop right into Yale's face. Bam, right in his face.

So he's about where that—I'm about like this. He's about where the podium is, I'm about here. And it's amazing the human mind, because his mind was—he obviously knew where I was. He immediately turned around and just kind of came, and I must have bent over, and the next thing I know, I've just got him, and I'm just holding him. And he's just hanging on to me. His head's just buried over here. I can feel him breathing, but I don't hear him crying.

Getting Back in the Game

Another thing about Yale: you could shatter his arm, he'd never cry, but if you scratched him and he saw blood, he'd cry. He doesn't like blood. So I said, "You all right, buddy?" And he said, "I think so." And so I said, "Let me see your face." And so there's a big red spot already, but no blood. I said, "Man, there's no blood, I think you're all right." And no tears, his eyes are welling up a little bit.

So I said, "You know, just kind of relax a second." So we have just like a moment, and I said, "You need to get back in there. I wouldn't, but this would be the end of my career. You just learned a valuable lesson. It hurts. I wouldn't do it again. But you need to get back in there." Exactly what he does. He said, "Okay."

So he goes back up, and he just sits down like he's waiting for a ball to come. Next kid hits a foul ball, and he's sitting right like that. He's got his hat down low. And just like this, he looks up and he said, "I have got to stay lower on these ground balls." I don't know what his skill level is. This kid's just got it. He's had it for a long time.

He's got a wonderful swing. There's a guy that plays for the Red Sox. I think his name is Bill Hall, and he bats like this. So what Yale does is he mimics all these kids. Well, they had a Christmas party. Bill Hall was there. And so my son-in-law called him and said, "Hey, Yale, show this guy how Bill Hall hits." So Hall goes nuts. Yale didn't know it was him. I was working with him the other night hitting. And he goes—so I got him hitting. And I go, "Here's Kevin Youkilis." And I said, "Let's just see how you swing." Long story.

The Point of the Story

Here's the point. When you get the equivalent of a ball in the face, it's totally natural to run to your father and cling to him. But after that normal reaction, natural reaction—it may be an hour. Literally, Yale's was maybe 30 seconds. Maybe it's a day. Maybe it's a week. Maybe it's a month. All I'm saying is once you feel that reassurance of your heavenly Father, you're back in the game. See it?

So let's not sugarcoat it. The news comes. This is the king, and he's afraid. Doesn't know what to do. What do you do when you don't know what to do?

Seeking the Lord

Look what he does. He prayed and turned his attention to seek the Lord. And not just there, throughout the land. All of Judah gathered together. They began to seek Him. "God, what would you have us do? God, how should we respond? What do you have to say to that?" And Jehoshaphat stands. And really, all of this through verse 13 is a prayer. It's an honest prayer. What do you do when you don't know what to do? You

Just turn to Him. You turn to the Lord. And you tell Him, "I don't know what to do. God, I need wisdom." And I may even have some instinct. "God, I think this is what we need to do."

We're in the process now at church of trying to buy two different buildings. And it's really interesting how this process starts. Immediately, I kick into a mechanical setting. What about this? What about that? What's that offer? What's the parking arrangement? What kind of drainage problems do we have? All of those issues. What's the city going to say? All of that. What's the electrical? How much power? What have we got? What's it going to cost us to build it out? You know what my first instinct wasn't to do and should have been to do, was after I thought, was what? To pray.

Seeking God First in Decision-Making

That's what we did Sunday at all of our campuses. We said, "Listen, we're trying to approach a couple of properties. We want to buy them. Here's what we want you to do. We're not asking you for any money." Because whenever we get to the building campaign, that's always really easy. Because I just always explain it the same way. Good news, bad news. Good news, we got all the money we need. Bad news, it's in your pocket. But we got all the money we need. That's the building campaign. So I'm not worried about that. That's phase 10 or something.

Here's the deal. We're working on this, but we want you to pray for us and pray for wisdom. Ask God to stop it if we shouldn't do this. And he prays. And he prays. And he prays. And he gets an answer.

God's Comforting Response

And look at what God does in the answer. He doesn't just go, "Man, you're stupid. You should understand this." He doesn't even go, "Do this." He almost starts with a word of comfort. Verse 15, about halfway down. "Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude." So He starts right with calm before He tells them anything about it.

And in that prayer, Jehoshaphat is acknowledging you are the great God. You're the creator God. You're the one who spoke it into existence in our context. We're talking about real estate. But, man, if we do a title search far enough, it goes back to you as the owner. You're the creator. You're the one who did it.

And He comes along, and probably at that moment, even more than a plan, he needed to hear, "Do not be afraid." Now, yesterday morning, right as I was going in to teach, I'm going through everything again, and I thought, "You know what? I'm not doing this service because look what He says." He says, "Do not be afraid or what? Dismayed." So I had to go back and do a word study on that.

Understanding Fear and Brokenness

That word means to be shattered or broken. When I'm afraid, I may think I'm an altogether guy. When I'm afraid, I'm shattered and broken. When you're afraid, get the picture of Yale hanging on to me, and that's the picture of you hanging on to your Heavenly Father.

And some of you, you're big powerhouse people. Business people, make money, lots of money. People follow you. You're leading companies. Some of you are elected officials. Some of you are appointed officials. Some of you are pastors. Some of you are big shot people that people are looking at you. Here's the deal, you know. Here's what I've learned. Most of the men I deal with are little boys inside. And most of the women really are. They just don't cover it as well.

I met the other day with a gal who came into the commercial real estate business when I did. And that's when a lot of women were coming into commercial real estate. And I love this gal, she retained her femininity in the midst of that. Because when the women came into the marketplace, the worst thing that could happen to you in a deal is to have a woman lawyer on the other side. And I don't mean that in some sort of gender thing, I'm just saying, and I get totally why it was that way, but they're fighting and clawing and scratching and they had to get in there. And oftentimes, overcompensated, I thought. They were going to prove their ovaries were bigger than mine. They are, you win, I give up, I surrender.

But inside, I saw them, we'd go out afterwards, we'd have a beer, a drink or something, there were little girls inside. We're all playing a game.

The Real Battle Isn't Ours

There's something that's coming at you, I don't know what it is, and you may be able to handle 99 things out of 100, 999 out of 1,000, but there's one of them coming and I don't know what it is, and when it comes, I'm giving you the prescription. Don't be afraid. Why? Because it's not scary? Very scary. Get hit right in the nose with a baseball, ever had it happen? It hurts. Not because these aren't real things. God doesn't say, "Boy, that's not a big problem." In fact, He says, "Don't be afraid or dismayed because of that big multitude of people that are out there."

They're out there, they're the enemy, they're loaded. They're hunting for bear and you're bear. Man, they're after you, but here's the whole secret. See Him tuck it in there? But the battle's not yours, it's God's.

This, in a way, should make things very comforting for us, but it hurts our ego a little. This is not all about you. Susan says this to me all the time. "You can make anything all about you." I have this conversation 1,000 times a day. How Susan will go through it. And then almost everybody will say, "How are you doing?" And I'll just start to answer and I'll go, I can hear Susan saying, "It's not about you. It's not about you. Why do you make this about you?" But it is, I want to make it about me. What's the center of the universe? Right here. That's how I want to do it. Right? He says, it's not about you, it's about me.

When God's Deliverance Challenges Our Expectations

Now, I don't like this story, because it has a happy ending. And the reason I don't like it, I mean, Daniel and the lion's den. I wish that he'd have got eaten, and I wish those guys would have got burned up. Here's why. We read that and somehow think, when we go in the fire or the lion's den, God owes us a pass to get out. Here's the big thing, remember that? Here you go. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Into the...

Faith in Uncertain Outcomes

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced the fiery furnace, they declared to the king, "Our God is able to get us out, but even if He doesn't." So you're sitting there with this big old thing coming against you, and you're praying about it, and you're thinking, "Oh, God, the battle is the Lord's. I'm not going to worry about it, I'll let Him handle it." But in your mind, you're going, "I'm not going to worry, because I'm going to get out of it. It's going to have a happy ending." No, not always.

I try to apply this with Susan. Last night was her last night taking a steroid. These steroids are just eating her alive. Last night was the last night. We got the test results back on the radiation and the tumor shrinking. But again, it's the equivalent of shoving her head in one of these nuclear reactors in Tokyo. It ought to shrink.

This is why I probably struggle. I never get really high, I never get really low. Something, sometime, somewhere is going to get her. She and I have talked about it. To be honest, we don't talk about it much anymore, because we talked about it so much earlier, and now there's so much pain. We don't talk about it as much. There's no good time to die. There's never a good time.

God's Abundant Answers to Prayer

Our prayer - and I mean we beseeched God, we knocked down the walls, we begged - was "God, let us see Brayden be born." Okay, now here we are. We got Brayden, now we got Gracie, now we got Yale, now we got Reagan, now we got Brooklyn, now we got Lucy. How abundant was His answer to that prayer? So if I just start looking at all these situations, I'd have to be crazy to put God in a situation where I go, "Well, He didn't come through." Oh my gosh.

Everyone wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die. I tell you, again, I have to battle this in my own thinking. I just care about so few things. I didn't even remember that the final game was on Monday night. That's not bad, I just say it.

Keeping Perspective on What Matters

Almost everything that I waste brain cells on doesn't matter. I was talking to a guy yesterday, and he goes, "The Red Sox are 0-5." I said, "Oh my gosh, and there's only 157 games left." You know, they're all bums. Yankees are three and two. It's all dumb, it doesn't matter. Put it in the place it belongs. It's like fun, it's like a video game. It doesn't matter.

These guys are playing Augusta right now, and it's beautiful. My whole Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will all be spent sitting there watching. It's my favorite tournament of the year, my favorite sporting event. I love it, but the reality is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't make any difference, ultimately. I'm not saying don't care - I'm just saying it doesn't matter.

The Foundation for Decision Making

The word of the Lord comes to them, and I'll give you this from the end of verse 20. They rose early in the morning, and here's what the king has learned: "Put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established, you'll stand firm. Put your trust in His prophets." By that, he means what this word says.

So how do you make decisions? Here's how I make all of my decisions. Some of them are real simple. If the light's red, stop. You don't have to think it through. But here's what I do: You gather facts, you go and say, "What does God have to say on this?"

Sometimes it's clear-cut. Let's say you're sitting there today and you're wrestling, "Should I commit adultery today?" Let me help you out. Probably not. Thursday's not a good day for adultery - that's more a Monday activity. You don't have to think about it. It's the same thing. He tells you the principles on money. He told you that a borrower is enslaved to the lender. This guy that's got this marriage from hell - it's your own fault. You picked her. God told you not to pick her.

A Process for Wise Decisions

So I ask, "What does God say?" If it's that clear, then you don't do it or you do it. Most of these are wisdom issues. So I take my wisdom, I apply it. I talk to my friends. I may call somebody I don't even know and say, "I know you went through this. Can you help me? I'm thinking this through."

And then - this kills people - examine my own heart. Is there sin in there? That's always a tough one, because I don't know that I ever get my heart pure. And then, this kills people: Then I do what I want. There's no right answer.

The Freedom to Choose Wisely

My daughter was a cheerleader when she was in seventh grade and her junior year of high school. She was trying to figure out whether to cheer her senior year or not. I'll never forget it. She's a terrific gal. She came to me all upset and said, "Dad, I don't know what to do." She said, "Dad, I don't want to make a wrong decision."

I said, "Okay, stop, Haley. I'm going to teach you something. This is a teachable moment. There's no wrong answer. This isn't a moral issue. You want to make a wise decision, not the right decision. Because the minute you couch it like that, you're always second-guessing."

So we did the old Ben Franklin approach - pluses, minuses, got it all out, talked it through. I said, "Haley, here you go. I'm going to give you something that if you can get this in your brain, this is the equivalent of the Emancipation Proclamation. At this point, Haley, here's the deal: What do you want to do, honey? Do it." That's how you deal with decisions.

Father, teach us these truths. Teach us Your word. We love You, and even then, because You first loved us, we worship You, praise You, in Christ's name, amen.