Reflection This Week
THE Decider

It would be easy, tempting even, devout Democrat that I am, to pick on the President and his assertion a while back that he is “The Decider”. Being President he has that prerogative when it comes to the office he holds. I can certainly quibble with some of the decisions he has made over the years, but that is democracy at work, not always at its very best, but given the alternative, I’ll take what we have.

   The truth, of course, is that while the President may be the ultimate decider when it comes to issues of State, The Decider in all things is God. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago while saying Morning Prayer reading from First Corinthians (12:11). I have four Bibles on my desk, each a different translation; and it is my custom to randomly choose from which I will read if only to get another take, if you will, on what the original Hebrew Old Testament or Greek New Testament says.

   The New Revised Standard Version translates the verse; “All these [gifts] are activated by the one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” The New International Version has it: “All of these are the work of the one and same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” The New Living Translation says, “It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone determines which gift each person should have.” The translation from which I was reading was The Message, by Eugene Peterson, puts in simply and succinctly, a la the President: “He [God] decides who gets what, and when.”

   Now I know that. We all know that. The problem arises whenever we want to be The Decider, even more so when we, in fact, become The Decider. The problem becomes acute and very dangerous in so many ways when we actually decide – and announce to one and all – whom God is to love or not love, whom God should or should not bless, whom God will or will not forgive. We make those decisions for God as if we were in fact God. Just think of all those people over the years we have condemned to hell on God’s behalf.

   Yet there is also the issue about the point at hand in the reading from Corinthians, namely about gifts. Who of us has not wished s/he had been the decider when the gifts and talents were handed out whenever God handed them out? Who has not wished s/he had certain gifts and was and is willing to give up others in exchange for those desired gifts? Who, and Peterson’s point, has thus overlooked the fact that we have been blessed with the gifts we have because God specifically chose to give us those gifts and not some others?

   The truth is that God knows us better than we know ourselves. Were we able to decide which gifts we should possess, we would no doubt choose all the wrong ones for all the wrong reasons. That is a difficult truth to accept, but I believe it to be rather indisputable – or at least it is an indisputable truth about me. Further, how often do we find ourselves envying the gifts and talents of others while downplaying our own or, even worse, not even acknowledging to ourselves that we have such?

   God, The Decider, decides who gets what, and when. Thus, God gives us whatever gifts with which we are blessed when God so chooses to grant them and – we only seem to discover in hindsight – exactly when we need them the most. Why is it only in retrospect that we discover that God knows best and that it is best we leave the gift giving and even the gift withholding in God’s hands, allowing The Decider to decide and simply be thankful for the blessings we have been given and, perhaps, even more thankful for the ones we have not? Our only responsibility is to use whatever gifts we have been given to the best of our ability.  WJP