MENCO

YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?

We were sitting in the office the other morning when the warning tones started on the weather radio. A tornado warning was issued for Lake County at 11:25a.m. A warning means that tornadoes are possible because of the surrounding conditions. My office mate and I were more or less unmoved by the urgency of the situation.

My life experience has taught me that a tornado is a serious event not to be taken lightly, even though that is exactly what we did. I grew up in a part of the country known as “Tornado Alley” and remember sitting in the carport, looking off to the southwest from our home just hoping to see one of those “cool funnel clouds” touch the ground and throw stuff (read: houses, cars, cows, and trees) into the air.

I would rather have ignored the warnings as a teenage boy, stayed on the carport, and waited for the tornado and the flying cattle. But as I reflect on it, I realize my failure to heed the advice of the weatherman could have resulted in me not being here to write this today. So as I heard this week’s weather radio warning tone, I have wondered why I would even consider not responding to the possible danger.

Honestly, I just react against anyone telling me what to do. My wife, my mother, my favorite preacher, my doctor, my employer, the government, anyone — I don’t respond well to anyone who tells me I need to obey. I want to decide for myself. I want to have the options laid out and choose. I want to volunteer. If you tell me I must, then I will tell you that I will not. My first response is to refuse.

I want to have all the facts, and then make my own decision. I guess this response would be okay if I had an omniscient understanding of everything. Being human, and being “somewhat limited” in my knowledge of all things, this second response can put me at a bit of disadvantage. If I cannot rely on the truth and accuracy of what others more educated or knowledgeable recommend, then I have made myself the “decider” of everything.

My crowning response to someone asking me to do something, or else requiring something of me, sounds like this: “I am not certain that doing what you ask will be to my benefit.” That thought is finished out with a litany of what-ifs. What if the cows do fly and I miss it? If I refuse to submit when I am rightfully called to submission I will never know the outcome for certain.

Who doesn’t face myriad decisions every single day of our lives? Sometimes they are insignificant, but other times they are huge. Learn from my self-scrutiny and don’t respond with a flash of obstinacy — or by thinking you know better, or a long series of questions seeking justifications, or even a list of what-ifs. When you are called upon to make a decision — no matter how small — slow down, put your personal rights of being in charge aside, and weigh the merits of choosing wisely.