The Problem With Thinking Too Much

I think.  A lot.  It doesn’t really matter what the subject is, I think about it.

There’s just one problem.

Sometimes I can think too much.

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A few years ago, I wrestled with whether or not I would go into ministry.  I thought about it constantly.  It consumed me.  I had a hard time focusing on anything.  My job performance suffered.  I was miserable.  I needed to make a decision.  Instead, I drew it out.

Obviously, I needed to think this thing through.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I was stuck not making a decision.

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The problem with thinking too much is what it causes in my life and in many other’s lives.

It causes paralysis.  Paralysis by analysis.

Sometimes we need to be decisive.  Make our decision.  Go for it.  Do it.  It may be the wrong one, but it’s really not something we can’t recover from.  Mistakes happen.  Wrong decisions are made.  We learn from them and move on.

Will Rogers said, “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”

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I went to a church for years wanting to make a change.  I wouldn’t make a decision at all.  I thought about it all the time.  I got to the point where I almost hated going to church.   I begged the Lord to let me leave.  I never got an answer.   I needed to make a decision one way or the other.  I decided to finally stay.  Soon after that, the Lord painfully removed me from that church.  Now, I’m happier than I’ve been in years.

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We’re going to make mistakes.  It’s ok.  We can live with it.  What we can’t live with is thinking so much that we don’t make any decision at all.  We have to do something.  Just do it and it will be ok.

Have you ever been guilty of thinking too much?  Did you need to make a decision and couldn’t pull the trigger?

Making Disciples, Not Decisions

Recently I read how a church had a huge number of decisions made over a certain weekend.  It seems that  there was a lot of praising to the Lord over this.  I held back a little.  I think a little differently.  Maybe a lot.  This is what I was thinking.

I wonder how many disciples were made among those decisions?

The Great Commission tells us to make disciples.  We are to do this by going, baptizing and teaching.

Jesus says nothing about going out making decisions.

I know that people will say that you can’t have a disciple without first having a decision.  I understand that.

I just wonder how many of those decisions will result in people who are really disciples?  How many made a decision to buy fire insurance and not a lifestyle of following Jesus?  How many of those decisions really changed their lives?

What I’m saying is that anyone can make a decision to come to Christ.  Fewer are really made into disciples.

I would rather have a much smaller number of people who have been made disciples than a large number of people who made decisions.

I didn’t voice this to down those who were excited over the decisions. I don’t want to be a killjoy.  I have to wonder, though.  How many of those decisions will result in true disciples?  Most of us will never know.

Are you making disciples?  Or are you making decisions?