DON’T BE AFRAID TO FIND OUT
Perhaps you’re one of many people who struggle with something called avoidance. It’s the predisposition to intentionally avoid finding out information that may reveal a problem, or difficult issue one must address in their personal life. People like this experience tremendous stress when they think about finding out something they fear, causing them much anxiety and turmoil. As a result they intentionally avoid finding out exactly what they really need to know.
It might be their BMI. Their actual weight. Their taxes. Their blood pressure or cholesterol levels. Their debt level. Where they really are financially, both presently and with regard to their future. Where they are spiritually, in their prayer life, their faith, their time in God’s word. The real condition of their marriage. Or how well their kids are really doing, or not doing, with schooling.
Recently, I was advising a devoted Christian father. He confided in me that he had been putting off honestly finding out where he was at for saving/investing and preparing for the later years of his life. It unsettled him greatly to think about it. As we visited on the phone, I offered some personal encouragement and perspective from my own life experience. I asked some very specific financial questions about things he had been avoiding. I then used an online tool, entering specific data he gave me, and it revealed a tremendous future for him, one he had no idea was possible based on where he was at presently, as he had put off looking, out of fear. Here is how he described it to me: “It’s like I finally opened the door to that room that I was afraid to go in because I thought it was so dark and full of horrors.” The beautiful thing is after he looked and we made accurate calculations, and he gathered accurate information he’d been putting off, he then wrote this: “Now that I’ve opened the door to this room, I find it is well lit and there’s not a single ghost in sight. What a relief!”
Now certainly, not everyone will look into the scary rooms of their lives and find good news. Sometimes what we find out will alarm us, disconcert us, even discourage us. But if you never know the answers to these critical questions, you’ll never have the chance to change the outcomes while there’s still time! You won’t have the chance to even pray specifically for answers in areas of need, because you chose to stay uninformed, in the dark, living in the dream world of your own making, til one day you’re living a nightmare reality of things that for years, you avoided.
Believe me I don’t like bad news any more than anyone else. But I want to know what is knowable, while there is still time to change whatever it is that’s actually in my power to change, so I can experience better, more positive outcomes, now and in the future.
Any enterprise is built by wise planning, becomes strong through common sense, and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the facts! Pr. 24:3-4 LB. You see, you can’t wisely plan if you don’t have good information. You will never see wonderful profits in these strategic areas of your life if you don’t keep abreast of your personal facts!
As God tells us in Proverbs 27:23 LB—Know the state of your flocks. Watch your interests carefully.
Know the state of your life.
Know the state of your marriage.
Know the state of your finances.
Know the state of your children’s education and personal development.
Know the state of your health.
Know the state of your spiritual life.
Once you know what you need to know, you can decide if the course you’re presently on is exactly what you should keep doing, or whether you should change course, make wise adjustments now, so you can change the outcome in the days ahead.
Do not be afraid to find out!
Through skillful and godly wisdom is a house [a life, a home, a family] built, and by understanding it is established. Pr. 24:3 Amplified
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
