Decisions

During the course of every day, each of us is called upon to make many decisions. Some of them are inconsequential, involving nothing more significant perhaps than a choice between two neckties. But some of them may be far reaching and fundamental decisions, such as a choice between taking or not taking the first step toward a bad habit, or a choice between the acceptance or the rejection of truth, or deciding on some opportunity or opening that would alter the course of a whole career. Such decisions can be critical, with far-reaching consequences, and somehow the subject suggests these words from Shakespeare: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in misery.”¹ Fortunate are those who recognize this tide for what it is and who make their decisions accordingly. The decision to do something just once that we know we shouldn’t do at all may cause us to miss the tide which would lead on to fortune—perhaps the material good fortune, or perhaps, more important, the good fortune of peace of mind and happiness and a quiet conscience. The decision to take some immediate advantage and to pay too big a price for it may be another cause of missing the tide which would have led on to the high seas of achievement. The decision to accept truth regardless of comfort or convenience or previous prejudice is another vital choice that men must make. Many who have had a conviction of truth, but who have counted the sacrifice of acceptance too great, have found that the tide has gone on without them, and all the voyage of their lives has been “bound in shallows.” For us and our generation we can have no greater wish than that we might have discernment to see the difference between decisions that matter little and those that matter much, and that the decisions we make may be free from prejudice or the compromising of principle, and that every choice of our lives may leave us with a quiet conscience and personal peace.