One of my favorite and simultaneously least favorite things about life is that everyone will do things differently. It's my favorite when someone solves a crisis with effortless ease of innovation; it's my least favorite when I find myself thinking, Why would anyone, EVER do THAT?
There are at least two types of people when it comes to doing things (ok, maybe three...but I'll get there): there are the perfectionist-worriers and the reckless-risk-takers. The perfectionist worrier is not my breed of human. The perfectionist wants to get all of the ducks, right in a row so as to assure - key word here, "assure" - that everything goes according to plan resulting in a scheduled outcome. The reckless-risk-taker on the other hand, will pinball from thing to the next, ever-taunting gravity's ability to strike and pull it to the bottom...forcing us to put in another quarter. Or something. I mean, they are usually the ones not contemplating the consequences til they arrive.
I suppose the third is the indecisive, and the only reason I came to that conclusion is because I almost couldn't figure out which I am. Further still, the only reason I couldn't figure that out (other than being often plagued with indecision) is that it's more appealing, in a strange way to be the ducks-in-a-row type of person. Something about that lies to me and tells me it's more secure. You might be that person, and you might read this and think: That's cause it is, it is more secure!
It doesn't take many seasons in life to know that just because you worry about something, doesn't stop it from happening. How far away are some of our habits of worry from a child peering under her bed for monsters before going to sleep? I always plead from this end, because that is my breed. But all this to the point that I believe there's a freedom in that; you might plan until you're blue in the face and drenched in sweat, and your plans may fail, or you could go wandering aimless and fall, lost on your unknown road.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I hear people criticize one another and feel justified, and much like anything I ponder, I turn it back on myself. The harsh truth is I do it, too. Why should we feel so justified to say we would've known how to do it better? Or worse yet, that it wouldn't have happened to us? Let the empathy sink back in by realizing that no one has the answers. There is no play book. I think of what freedom there would be if we weren't worried about someone questioning why we did or didn't do something! Biblically, we are told to use discernment and be wise, but not to worry for tomorrow for it will worry for itself, and also in Romans that to each their own convictions before the Lord concerning certain things.
What beauty and relief there might be in the freedom, to know there is no certain way to venture your path!
