Bad decisions

We had a scary incident during the winter a few years back based upon a series of bad decisions. My nine-year-old son tied a rope to a branch that he could reach from our tree house. This was so instead of climbing down the ladder like normal people, he could swing down Tarzan style (as he climbed outside the rail).

Now, my son is fairly athletic and swinging Tarzan style posed no real problems. The difficulty came when his five-year-old sister tried to copy big brother. With great determination she shimmied herself to the edge, clasped the rope tightly, took a deep breath ... and slipped.

She fell nine feet on her back to the frozen ground below.

I was inside unaware of what was going on and as breathless boys called my attention, my little girl was on the ground not moving her legs. A trip to the ER and subsequent X-rays revealed no damage, just shock and soreness. We were so fortunate that she was at that age where kids still bounce. If I tried that, I would have broken a hip.

Bad decisions — we all make them. And just about all of the time we make them on an impulse. Instead of thinking through a situation Biblically, we go with our gut, and that usually leads to indigestion.

The book of Ruth opens with a family: Dad, Mom and two boys, I’ll bet they even had a dog.

The Bible explains for us the situation as we dive into this story; there was a famine. A time when the rains ceased, the crops went dry and stomachs were empty. It was a time of difficult circumstances. The father of this family was named Elimelech and he, fearing for the welfare of his wife and kids, made a decision. He was going to leave Bethlehem and go to a neighbouring country where there was food.

Now on the surface, this seems like a good decision, but if we peel back some of the layers and go a little deeper we can find some major flaws.

Elimelech’s name means “my God is King.” He was a man who should have trusted God, but based upon outward circumstances he panicked. He left Bethlehem — “House of Bread” — and travelled to the land of Moab. Now the Moabites had a sketchy history. Genesis 19 records for us how Moab was born out of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter, and they had always been enemies of Israel.

So we have a man who should have been trusting God who is leaving the city of bread to go to the enemy of his people. This is a picture of a believer making a bad decision based upon outward circumstances.

We cry, “but there is no food.” This is true, but if God is able to sustain a prophet by the beak of a raven, (I Kings 17) can he not provide for his children?

Elimelech used human reasoning, which doesn’t always work and followed his gut. This fateful decision was disastrous in the short term where he and his two sons died in the land of their enemy.

There will be times where very difficult situations come our way. Instead of reacting with fallible human reasoning, may we take time to find the answers in God’s Word; He will never steer us wrong.

Most of my bad decisions are when I acted impulsively, instead may we wait upon the Lord.

“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Psalms 27:14.