Written by Michael Kelley
Life is about making decisions. Most of the decisions we make we don’t really pay attention to; we choose what radio station to listen to, what to eat for dinner, or what movie to go see. We don’t spend hours agonizing over decisions like that; the choice presents itself and we make it and most of the time just carry on with the day.
There are those times though when the decision seems bigger – we have to choose a career, choose a home, or choose a spouse. These are the kinds of decisions that keep us up at night; they move us to seek council from others and carefully weigh out the options.
Big or small, we are always deciding something. But the big and the small are not isolated from each other. In fact every small decision is in reality a reflection of a larger one.
In other words, life is about big decisions actualized in little choices. Here’s an example:
Marriage is a big decision. At a moment, you commit before God and others to honor your husband or wife, no matter what may come. You promise to be faithful and cherish them throughout whatever life throws at you, whether rich or poor or sickness or health. That’s a big decision. But today, you have the chance to actualize that decision in a ton of little ways. Will you ask caring questions about your spouses daily activities and feelings? Will you serve them by doing the household chore they hate to do? Will you put down your phone or remote and listen to them earnestly and genuinely? All these little choices are just a reflection of the bigger decision you’ve already made.
You can really look at any small daily choice like this. If you want to filter it through this dynamic, then just ask yourself what’s the larger decision behind the smaller choice you’re making right now? In fact, you can actually hold up this dynamic to your faith.
Believing in Jesus? That’s a big decision. It’s all-encompassing. It changes everything. But it’s a big decision that is lived out in little choices. So when we come to 1 Peter 4, we see many small choices that we have to make on a moment by moment basis:
- Love each other
- Be hospitable
- Don’t complain
- Use your gift
- Speak in a godly way
- Serve in God’s strength
They might seem like little choices, but each one of them is founded in the big decision that a Christian makes over and over again – to repent and believe in Jesus. Let us not, then, be the people of big decisions only. Let us instead be the people whose small choices reflect in a myriad of ways that bigger decision to declare that Jesus is Lord.