“Make your choice, adventurous Stranger,

Strike the bell and bide the danger,

Or wonder, till it drives you mad,

What would have followed if you had.”

C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew

Have you ever had a big decision to make? One that could affect not just your own life, but the lives of your family as well? It’s a scary place to be. I wish that God could just tell me what to do, you know? Just outright speak aloud. Like when He told Noah to drop everything and build an ark, or when He spoke to Abraham, Moses, Paul and Jonah. Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t potentially run the opposite way at first like Jonah, but I like to think that if I could just get a clear answer, I would choose to follow God’s will without having to spend any time in a great, big fish.

It is so hard sometimes though to hear past our own desires. Two desires at war within me – how can I be sure of which is my own and which is God’s? How do I take that leap of faith into a bold, scary decision? If I do, will I regret it? Or will the regret be that I will never know what might have been if I didn’t take that leap into the unknown?

Maybe I am running away like Jonah. Only my Tarshish is my own heart’s desires. I wonder what my great, big fish will be?

You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

Jonah 2:3 NIV