faith unfaded

I’m currently trying to decide between two very different July 4th experiences for my summer road trip—an Americana celebration at The Stephen Foster Story amphitheater and a Freedom Fest at Fort Knox.

Neither is wrong. Both sound meaningful. Both would make great memories. And because there’s no urgency, I’m not forcing myself to decide today.

I’ve learned something over the years: when a decision doesn’t require an immediate answer, sometimes the wisest thing I can do is let it simmer quietly on the back burner for a few days. More often than not, my heart eventually reveals a stronger leaning one way or the other.

Not every decision has to be made under pressure.

But I’ve also learned there are other moments in life where you do have to choose quickly. In those moments, I make the best decision I can with the wisdom I have at the time—and then I refuse to spend the next few months regretting the road not taken.

A mind filled with woulda, coulda, shouldas is a construct of bars that eventually imprison you.

Sometimes there truly isn’t a right or wrong choice. Sometimes there are simply two different roads with two different sets of consequences. You make pro/con charts. You pray. You track the potential trajectory of each choice. You seek wisdom. Then you make your decision and move forward.

But there’s another category of decisions too—the ones where neither option lines up with truth.

Those are the moments when I picture life like an election booth.

Sometimes Candidate A and Candidate B both represent a compromise of values. Maybe one seems “less bad” than the other, but deep down, you know neither choice honors God.

And in those moments, I’ve learned something important: you don’t have to choose between two things that violate God’s Word.

You can write in your own candidate.

The Lord is not limited to the options sitting in front of you. He is fully capable of making a way where there seems to be no way at all.

I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

I think peace comes from learning the difference between these kinds of decisions.

Some need time.
Some need courage.
Some need surrender.
And some need the faith to walk away from the ballot entirely.

Either way, I’m grateful that God is patient with me through every category. Even the times I’ve hesitated. Even the times I chose wrong. Even the times I overthought things completely.

And maybe that’s part of spiritual maturity too—not believing we have to navigate every crossroads perfectly, but trusting that God is still faithful while we learn.