Facing Life’s Toughest Decisions

October 11, 2009

Genesis 22:1-14

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."

NRSV

A couple of weeks ago I talked about a beloved sports figure, Stan Musial. Stan excelled in baseball, of course. But how does baseball compare in difficulty to other sports?

Someone did a survey on the top ten most difficult things to do in sports. Here they are, in order:

10. Skiing the alpine downhill race at 80 mph.

9. Saving a penalty kick in soccer.

8. Bicycling the Tour de France covering 2,114 miles.

7. Running a marathon.

6. Landing a quadruple toe loop on figure skates — with grace.

5. Returning a 130-140 mph tennis serve.

4. Hitting a golf ball straight and long.

3. Pole vaulting.

2. Driving a race car while enduring 5 G’s in the corners in 120 degree heat, knowing a mistake can kill you.

And number 1 most difficult thing to do in sports—anybody want to guess?

1. Hitting a major-league baseball pitch thrown at 90 plus mph by judging it in 1/1,000th of a second. If you can pull it off successfully three out of 10 times, you’ll land a multimillion dollar contract.

--USA Today, 3/3/03

I admire athletes who can do any of these top ten things. They’re people who combine natural talent with hard work. Doing sports at a high level involves endurance, training, and relentless, endless practice.

And yet, ultimately, what athletes do doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s entertainment. Distraction. Diversion.

What really matters is how you deal with the challenges of life. Life can present challenges much more difficult than even trying to hit Adam Wainwright’s curveball.

Here’s one survey of these challenges, ranked in order of difficulty:

10. Raising children.

9. Giving forgiveness.

8. Apologizing.

7. Loving your enemy.

6. Quitting cigarettes, getting sober, abandoning an addiction.

5. Regaining the lost trust of loved ones.

4. Keeping faith in God amidst trials and tribulations.

3. Living homeless.

2. Burying a child.

1. Removing hospital life support for a loved one.

Life’s tough decisions.

And there’s no training camp, no preparation for any of these things. You just have to confront them and deal with them.

What’s more, we can be faced with tough decisions on a broader scale than just our personal lives. Look at the health care crisis, struggling with providing access to health care for all, in an equitable and economical way. Or what about schools? A tax increase may help provide better schools, but at the same time impact those on fixed incomes.

Abraham knows a lot about facing tough decisions. It’s symbolized in the decision to obey God when God said, “Take your son, and make of him an offering to me.”

Of course, this sounds barbaric to our ears, as it should. In our way of thinking a loving God would never command a parent to do that. Well, the language and images of the Bible can be offensive to us. But the offensive passages in the Bible are the ones that do get our attention, and perhaps best help us grow.

There are two things we should remember about this passage.

One, it had a happy ending—although from that time on, Isaac was a little nervous whenever Abraham would say, “Son, let’s go out into the wilderness for a picnic!”

And two, its awfulness is a good symbol of the awful decisions life confronts us with—decisions we have no say in, but confront us anyway.

Do you continue the treatment, or not?

Do you blow the whistle on what’s going on at work, and get fired, while you have a mortgage to pay?

Do you confront an abusive spouse by getting support and possibly getting a divorce and being left alone and vulnerable?

Do you refuse to go along with what someone wants you to do because you know it’s wrong—and you risk losing that person’s friendship?

The story of Abraham/Isaac is the ultimate story of facing an awful decision, and doing the right thing, regardless of the consequences.

Abraham did the right thing—he was obedient to God, even though he didn’t understand what was happening.

How could he do it? How could he find the strength to do the toughest thing of all?

I think there are two reasons.

HE SAW THE BIG PICTURE.

Christian writer and speaker Anne Lamott had had a difficult childhood. It eventually gave way to a difficult marriage, which would ultimately end in divorce.

In the midst of all this, she recalled a time of revelation in college. One of her professors had assigned a book called Fear and Trembling, by the theologian Soren Kierkegaard. The book focused on today’s story of Abraham and Isaac. Anne had always had problems with this story, as we all do. It made her doubt God and the nature of God. But after reflecting on Kierkegaard’s thoughts, a revelation hit her. She said,

"[Abraham] understood that without God's love and company, this life would be so empty and barbaric that it almost wouldn't matter whether his son was alive or not. And since this side of the grave you could never know for sure if there was a God, you had to make a leap of faith, if you could, leaping across the abyss of doubt with fear and trembling." Anne was beginning to be opened to faith. "I was cracking up," she said, and "that's how light gets in."

—Margaret Gunness, "Stepping Stones for Spiritual Growth," December 2001, explorefaith.org.

Anne “got it.” She saw how Abraham was willing to do the toughest thing. Abraham had tasted life lived in relationship with God. Abraham had experienced God’s closeness. He had seen God’s faithfulness to promises made. He knew that life wasn’t worth living without being in a relationship with God. And so, even though he didn’t know why God was asking him to do the unthinkable, he knew this: life without God wasn’t worth living.

In short: you don’t compromise your loyalty to God in the tough situation you’re confronted with. Abraham understood that his father Terah, his wife Sarah, even his soon Isaac: they would all come and go. They were all precious to him, but he also knew that he would not have been with them and enjoyed them had it not been for God in the first place. HE WOULD BE OBEDIENT AND HONOR THIS GOD, EVEN IN SITUATIONS WHERE HIS MIND WAS CONFUSED AND HIS HEART WAS BREAKING.

Centuries later, Jesus would say the same thing.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. —Matt 10:37-39

Aw, come on, Jesus, don’t sugarcoat it—tell it like it is!

Sometimes we “dummy down” the faith, don’t we? Sometimes we act as if we can be friends with the world and its ways. We think we can go along with people who are lying, cheating, gossiping—and still worship with integrity the God who demands justice and righteousness. We think we can get drunk, get high, cheat on our spouse, cheat on our sales report—and still come in here and sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy” with a clean conscience. We can’t. WE CANNOT WORSHIP THE ONE THE WORLD CRUCIFIED, WITHOUT EXPECTING THE WORLD TO GET THE NAILS AND HAMMER OUT FOR US. THE WORLD GETS THE CROSS READY WHEN WE SEEK TO HONOR GOD BY THE DECISION WE MAKE.

When you are faced with life’s tough decisions, know that then is when you have the opportunity to stand with Abraham, stand with Jesus.

May I suggest that when you face that difficult time, not knowing which way to turn, you pray from the beginning—

“Lord God, I want to honor you, right here, right now. You are the one I believe in, give my life to. Help me make the right choice.”

You constantly repeat that prayer during the crucible experience of decision making. And then, when you’ve made your decision—even though you feel like Abraham, with confused mind and breaking heart—you pray,

“Lord, I’ve made the best decision I can. Forgive me if it’s the wrong one, but I do want to honor you. Please, now, use what I’ve done, and may it glorify you in some way. As your Son prayed, so do I: ‘Not my will, but yours, be done.’ Amen.”

Abraham saw the big picture. He knew his relationship with God was ultimate. And because of this, he discovered something happening.

HE FELT THE STRUGGLE CHANGING HIM.

You have to believe that as he and his son were on their donkeys, slowly making their way into the wilderness, Abraham was all torn up inside. That’s the way it is when you’re trying to hit life’s 95 mph fastball.

But I also have to believe that along the way, something was happening to him. Perhaps it was a strange peace. Perhaps it was a growing sense of confidence. Sure, he was still hurting and confused, but from that chaos was emerging a strength he hadn’t experienced before.

Now, you know he didn’t have to put himself in this position to begin with. You know he could have said, “No, Lord, this is just too tough a thing to ask of me. Forget it.” But he didn’t. He put himself into the fire. And because he did, he found strength beyond himself. When his son asked the heart-wrenching question, “Everything is ready for the sacrifice, Dad, but where’s the lamb?” Abraham heard himself saying that incredible statement of faith: “God himself will provide the sacrifice.”

You know how audacious that is? It’s like standing in the batter’s box, facing a Cy Young award pitcher, and pointing over the left field bleachers, where you’re going to hit the homerun.

WHEN YOU ACCEPT THE STRUGGLE IN CHRIST’S NAME, YOU BECOME A CHANGED PERSON. YOU DISCOVER THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF, ABOUT LIFE, ABOUT OTHERS, ABOUT GOD THAT YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE KNOWN HAD YOU AVOIDED THE STRUGGLE. AND AS YOU CONTINUE ON YOUR WAY, YOU HAVE NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER THAT GOD WILL PROVIDE. PERHAPS THAT’S BECAUSE GOD’S ALREADY PROVIDED FOR YOU THE MOMENT YOU MADE THE DECISION TO DO THE RIGHT THING!

I believe that God didn’t just challenge Abraham with that test of faith. I believe that God gave him that challenge so that Abraham would have a chance to grow and develop his character. I believe that God was with Abraham as he made that journey in the wilderness. I believe that journey opened Abraham up to receiving God’s spirit and grace in a more profound, intimate way. I believe that Abraham could look back on that experience ultimately as a gift—because without it, he would never have been able to say—then and in the future—“God himself will provide.”

Everyone who’s ever come close to doing what Abraham did—doing the right thing, regardless—can testify to God’s grace in the most difficult of situations.

A woman was faced with a difficult decision. She was offered a job that would have given her quite a bit of money, prestige, and security. And yet, it didn’t feel right for her. She was considering a different job opportunity that would pay less, was more unstable. Yet that job seemed to fit her talents better, and gave her a sense of doing what she thought God was wanting her to do.

After several days of wrestling with the decision, and a few sleepless nights, she declined the higher paying job, and took the other one. With the decision made, she felt a satisfying peace about her.

She later reflected on her wrestling with doing the right thing:

You can't control some aspects of your life--you can only react.

You react the best you can, and make mistakes along the way.

The mistakes enable you to understand yourself and life better, accept grace from others, and celebrate the grace behind it all—God's grace, seen through Christ.

You see Christ better when you struggle with mistakes and hopes and uncertainties--for he had to deal with those.

You can't control your future, and the more you try, the more likely you'll make mistakes.

You've got to look at the big picture when small details of it present themselves.

Above all, you must trust God—and that in God’s will you will find not just peace for yourself, but opportunities to serve as God wants you to serve. Whatever you do or don’t do, doesn’t matter—God’s will WILL prevail!

This person sort of modeled what Abraham went through, didn’t she?

Maybe in the end, that’s the best way to understand something so difficult to understand. It’s a model of what a faithful person goes through, clinging to what is right, regardless, and discovering God coming through in amazing ways, in the process.

You can practice being Abraham this week.

This week of the 28 Days of Praise is devoted to risk-taking mission. I invite you to put into practice this week what we’ve talked about today. As you go through the week, choose the “riskiest” expression of mission you can find—something that will take you out of your comfort zone. Go ahead and do it.

You might just find surprising results.

And then when you’re faced with one of those top 10 difficult things to do in life, you’ll better recognize what the right thing to do is. And you’ll do it, believing with all your heart that indeed…God WILL provide.