prayerful decisions

Hard decisions are part of life. Tough choices pop up; so do problems with seemingly no viable options. Somehow we have to find our way to a good path forward. What do you do?

Is there something in Jesus’ life to help us answer that question, a technique of some sort? Of course. Here it is, in Luke 6:12-16: 

“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”

I wonder what Jesus in prayer sounds like? What would a perfectly divine yet completely human son say to God himself about life on earth? I’d love to know, but I don’t think it would help me because God would have revealed it to us if it would.

God did make sure we’d know the outcome, though: Jesus came back off the mountain after a whole night of prayer and picked his disciples. He’d come to the conclusion that he needed and intimate inner circle. There was something about this small group of twelve that would be instrumental in carrying out God’s plan, something not available from his larger following. This makes me want to read the New Testament with a special focus on the ministry of the disciples.

Even more, Jesus picked Judas, the man who would steal from his ministry and sell him out. It’s not that Jesus didn’t know what Judas would do or what kind of man Judas was; certainly God, who he spent the whole night praying to before choosing the disciples, knew. So, following the same train of logic, Judas was also an important part of the plan. And he was, because Jesus’ success depended on his betrayal.

But here I am, sidetracked by the fascinating decision Jesus made after prayer. I’m no longer asking if there’s a way I can make those hard choices better. Could it be that I don’t want to think about that because it’s what I knew already?

Praying is absolutely the best way to make good decisions. Why, then, don’t I do it? I have a lot of techniques I use, methods of gathering information and analyzing data. I’m good at defining screening criteria and evaluation criteria, at weighting factors and validating assumptions. I think I’m good at evidence-based decision making.

But honesty compels me to admit that there’s a small subset of decisions I actually pray about. Like a lot of church people I know, I tend to put prayer in that category of things I try last. Prayer too often is what I do when I don’t know what else to do.

I think Jesus would say, pray first. And praying during. And then pray after. I’m pretty sure if I did that, I’d make better decisions.