Have you been confronted with a situation that seemed to have no good options? In fact, any choice you made in that situation appeared to place you in between a rock and a hard place? Well, you’re not alone. Many leaders (whether it’s business or at home) in crisis situations face similar circumstances when they have to make snap decisions during crisis.
Today, we’re going to examine 3 decision making concepts that will allow you to perceive through any situation from the Book of Nehemiah.
But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.
Nehemiah 6:11-13 ESV
1. Don’t fear the outcome of your decisions
Don’t be the leader that freezes or defers their decision making authority. When you do so, you undermine your own leadership. When you are faced with a situation, you should not be fearful of making a decision. After all, you are in your position and role for a reason.
Nehemiah calls it “running away.” This is what we want to avoid. We can never be sure how our decisions will turn out, but we should understand that my not making a decision, we are inevitably choosing a certain outcome – that is to say that we are choosing to allow the situation overcome us and are choosing to do nothing about it.
Running away may work when you are deciding what you will eat for dinner. But running away never works when you are in the middle of a crisis or are trying to make a substantive decision on your future. So do not fear the outcome of your decisions and choose to be the decider.
2. Identify the goal of your decision making
When you are making a decision, start with the goal you are trying to achieve. When you know the goal you want to acheive, making the right decision toward that goal is easier to perceive in the situation you are facing.
In this example, Nehemiah’s goal was to fear God and honoring his laws for being in the Temple. He knew how he had to decide because he already chose his goal. It made the decision making process easier when he was faced with the situation of opposition.
Ask yourself: what is the goal I am trying to achieve by making xyz decision? Then the steps to get to that goal become apparent. Be aware though, if your goal is bad, like “I’m going to get rich by successfully robbing banks,” then don’t expect your decisions to be good or that successful.
3. Understand the context of your situation
Nehemiah understood who hired a guy to scare him into a corner. A lot of decisions we make about situations, especially about our future or when we’re in crisis mode, are not understood well by us, and we are the decision makers.
We have to go beyond gut feelings, and really examine what is going on in context. If that means that we have to do some research into an issue, or take some time to think about it, then we should do so in order to be informed when we make a decision. There is nothing worse than making a decision blind to the context of a situation. When we rush a decision without understanding the context, we will find ourselves in a far worst situation than when we were originally confronted.
Prayer: Father, allow us to make good decisions and act on those decisions. The situations that we face daily that require our decisions because they impact our immediate future are immense and often muddied with distractions and misinformation. Allow us to be brave when we make decisions and understand the context we are making the decisions in. Lord bless the goals that we set as we make decisions through situations of crisis. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
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