Journeying Together

Should I take the job?

Am I able to commit to this relationship, or do I need to call it off now?

Do I invest in this company?

Will our family be better off here, or do we move?

Can I continue with this community or is it time to move on?

These are just a handful of the choices I have encountered in my small group of friends and family as well as in my own life over the past couple of months. No doubt, you may be faced with a big decision, too. It’s part of life! We all face a myriad of decisions every day; some have high stakes and others are small decisions but have significant ramifications (think: parenting choices).

In my own spiritual journey, I have been reading the book What’s Your Decision?: How to Make Choices with Confidence and Clarity: An Ignatian Approach to Decision Making by Father J. Michael Sparough SJ (Author), Jim Manney (Author), Father Tim Hipskind SJ (Author). This book if filled a lot of wisdom. Here’s just one of the many gems:

“We’re afflicted with divided hearts that cause us to be burdened by angst, uncertainty and fear when making important decisions. But this very confusion of thoughts and feelings is the place where we find God’s footprints. It’s the raw material for discernment. This was Ignatius’s great discovery.”

As I read through this book, I couldn’t help but simplify some of the main concepts into the following graphic organizer. I’m sharing it here, hoping it will be helpful to someone! If you’d like to download in pdf form, shoot me an email and I will send you a copy.