This is my best attempt at illustrating something from Francis Chan’s sermon “The Lord’s Prayer.”
He talked about decision making and gave this illustration from one of the men in his church. I’ve added my own flavor to it.
This is what the typical decision making graph looks like:
The one flaw in that graph is that it assumes it’s equally as easy to make a good decision as it is a bad one.
In reality here’s what most decision graphs look like:
And then when we make the bad decision (cause it’s easier to slide down a hill than it is to climb stairs) we realize it and take a look at the path back to the good decision.
We not only have to stop the momentum of our bad decision but we have to climb back up the slide and still go through the hard work of climbing the steps up.
Hmmmm, make sense?
Good post, Mike…and very true. You’ve got this illustration thing down.
Thanks John. When I heard that podcast a light went on ‘ah, so THAT’S why I have such a hard time stopping a bad decision and doing the right thing.’. Made sense to me.
Decisions; should be influenced by the long term effect. I lived in Florida for almost a year. Gravey job with good pay. Swimming, diving or long walks in the National Forest. A man’s dream life. BUT! I lost my purpose in life. My focus was obscured by Jeremiah Johnson, Steve Irwin and more. Life is not about me. It is about Him. He, the Creator, created us for His purpose. And when I figured this out, a peace came into my life beyond the excitement of adventures. I am more satisfied seeing my wife and family than all of the wild animals, fish and reptiles could offer. But I relish the experience. I needed it to see just how wonderful of a family I almost lost contact with. This is priceless….