Decisions, Decisions

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Decisions, Decisions

by Monica Gambrell

My childhood was punctuated with a mixture of momentary fear and ongoing tension and dread. It’s funny how hindsight can give one a clearer picture of reality than what seems to be true at the moment. I have to give a bit of background here in order to present a fuller representation of the event portrayed.

I was a latchkey kid. My mother had finally moved up the food chain at her job and had begun working the day

shift. This allowed her to be home sometime around 5:30 p.m. while I and my younger sister, Sheila, arrived home around 3:30 p.m. We were eleven and ten, respectively, and the expectation was that we would have dinner cooked and ready for our mother when she arrived home. We had three older siblings who had all moved out by then. My mother kept the façade of a clean home, but she was a hoarder. The unfinished basement and a dilapidated old car in the yard were filled to the brim with junk. This caused a problem that I had not previously considered.

On one fine day, Sheila and I were in the kitchen preparing the evening meal when the unthinkable occurred. The scene must have looked cartoonish from the point of view of an onlooker. I was facing the sink and caught something big moving along the floor out of the corner of my eye. It was a rat! You probably think I mean to say a mouse, but no. Without the tail, it was around six inches long! I had never moved so fast in my life as I did at that moment. I screamed as I jumped literally straight up with both feet, which landed right on the edge of the sink. The rat was barely lumbering along; it must have previously gotten into some poison. From my perch, I reached across to grab a huge domed lid for a roasting pan and dropped it straight down to entrap the rat. It worked! I don’t even remember how we got that thing out of the house, but I can tell you I was a bundle of nerves! My mother’s decision to be a hoarder caused the rat problem. If only one lesson was learned that day it was this: every word and every action have consequences. In this case, the fallout was minimal, but some decisions have serious and eternal consequences. Nothing in life is completely neutral. Even the lack of a decision is in and of itself a decision. “The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matthew 12:30).

“So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

Father God, You know us so well. We are so comfortable in the middle—not rocking the boat but also not rocking the world for the sake of the gospel. We need to make a concerted decision to throw off the blankets of complacency and live a life grounded in Your Word and on fire for You. Please instill within us a sense of urgency to see Your Kingdom come!

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