Fear is Stronger than Hope?

"How do we know if we are making the right decision?"   That’s what the elder asked.  Good question.  An important one.  I suggested to her that the right decision needed to be related to a goal or a mission or some criteria.  If the goal is hospice, then the right decision has to do with comfort and non-heroic measures.  If the goal is survival, then comfort and non-heroic measures are the wrong decisions. 

"Well, don’t we need more information?"  That what the elder asked next.  Another good question.  I suggested to her this time that find out both how much information we have and how much time we have.  If we have five years, then we have time to get more and half the information we have will probably become obsolete by then anyway.  If we have five weeks, it’s another matter. 

And how much information do we have now?  “Well,” she replied, “there must be lots of different options.”  Ok.  Let’s brainstorm.  We came up with five.  “But there must be experts out there who could come up with a lot more.”  Probably.  Maybe not lots more.  But maybe more.  

Then I wondered to her, "Can we afford them?  Might some of them say contradictory things or different things?  It happens occasionally in medicine and other fields."  I don’t know if we have all the information but I am pretty sure we never will.  We live in an information age and there’s always more of it.  The amount of it and insecurity we have about making less than 100% perfect decisions, leads to questing for more instead of decisions and action.

"What if this change we make is bad?"  That’s another comment she had.  It could be.  But there is no option without change.  Staying as is will mean changes.  Going a different direction will mean changes.  Which is going to be for the better?

 

"Some people aren’t going to like what we decide."  Another comment.  True.  True.  So this is a reason not to do something??  No way.  That puts the naysayer or critic in charge of the church.  And someone will always be unhappy.  Even Jesus, the Son of God, who had only twelve faced one of them being unhappy -- Judas.  If someone’s going to be miffed period, let’s gird up our loins and make the best decision we can. 

This isn't far different from, "I heard people don't like program x, y, or z."  That's when I ask, "How many?"  Usually it is two or less.  Did you talk to the other 98 who were there?  So you don't know if they liked it or didn't like it?  It could be 98 to 2.   I also ask, pardon me, "Which people?"  Oh them, they're nuts and against everything.  Everybody knows that. And you saying that you heard some people don't like it helps the rest of us hearing it how?  Or does it spawn a rumor mill of dis-ease?  

Let’s focus not on the naysayers (although we don’t want to not hear or care for them) but let’s see the many who are willing, interested, and able.  Somehow we see the negative more easily than the positive.  Yes, fear unfortunately is stronger than hope sometimes.  But let’s go with the hope.