Desires, Decisions and Actions

The following classic passage from the New Testament describes quite well the struggle most people are aware of in their inner being. It provides a great foundation for this blog. I took the liberty of striking “want” and "hate" and replacing them with the synonym “DESIRE” to help make my point.

Romans 7 (NIV)
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I DESIRE to do I do not do, but what I DO NOT DESIRE I do. 16And if I do what I do not DESIRE to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I DESIRE to do; no, the evil I do not DESIRE to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not DESIRE to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I DESIRE to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
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We have DESIRES. We make DECISIONS. We perform ACTIONS.

I want to help you recognize that your DESIRES can be different from your DECISIONS and can be different from your ACTIONS. We sometimes use the word “decision” too loosely. We say: “I have decided this” or “I have decided that”. Here’s my thesis: Decisions always result in actions - usually immediately, but always as soon as possible. If a “decision” does not result in an action at the NEXT available opportunity you did not make a decision, you expressed a desire.

EXAMPLE: “I have decided am going to save $100 per pay check.” If the next payday comes and you don’t put $100 into savings, you had expressed a desire but certainly made no decision. Decisions ALWAYS result in action at the next available opportunity. The more honest way to say that (if you weren’t going to do save any money) would have been: “I desire to save $100 per pay check.” The great thing about desires and decisions being separate and potentially disconnected things is this: You could decide to save $100 per pay check AND do it (act), with no real desire. You just do it anyway. Your desires do not have to match up to your actions - and according to the author of Romans - they often don’t.

So what? Why does that matter? First off, I think the words people use are important. Secondly, it is important that people be honest about their desires and recognize that desires do not need to dictate behavior.

DESIRES – WHAT ARE THEY?
Desires are often subconscious or unconscious. Those words are interchangeable unless you are a professional psychoanalyst teaching at a university. Desires often operate below the level of awareness. They can arise from spiritual forces around you, from the influence of others or from within yourself.

DECISIONS – WHAT ARE THEY?
Decisions are internal and invisible. They are “mental activities” or electro-chemical actions in the brain. They are proven to exist only by being overtly acted on. You can see the results of decisions (actions), but you can't see decisions themselves. Decisions can be subconscious or conscious.

ACTIONS – WHAT ARE THEY?
Actions are external and overt, behavioral, measurable and observable. They are physical-bodily actions. They are known to anyone who is watching.

Desires do not have to result in decisions and therefore they do not have to result in actions.

Stated desires provide a clue about the future behavior we can expect from another at some point. Stated decisions inform us about the actions one can expect from another at the NEXT available opportunity. If we don’t observe behavior that is consistent with the stated “decision” at the next opportunity, the person was really expressing a desire, not a decision.

Desires influence the person to make certain decisions and are not easily prevented - if they can be prevented at all. We can only "decide" to respond to them or not respond to them. Desires are somewhat like the weather. Desires just are. They are what they are. Decisions and Actions are possible to control and to change if you truly decide to control them and if you truly decide to change them.

Desires operate at the level of emotions and thoughts and are sometimes revealed by the spoken word. Decisions operate at the level of unseen brain activity. Actions operate at the level of observable physical behavior. Your decisions and your actions are usually completely under your control. Meaning: Except in very rare situations or in the case of certain medical or mental conditions, you act the way you have decided to act. The decision to act could have been conscious or subconscious. The desire influencing the decision need not have risen to a conscious desire.

In this regard, I found an interesting article on decision making and actions. You can find it at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121450609076407973.html?mod=blogs. This article describes a study in which a group of neuroscientists found that in some situations the brain knows what you are going to do 10 seconds before you become consciously aware of your decision and subsequent action. Through another study another group found that they could use brain wave patterns to identify your decisions before you reveal them by your actions. The scientists had their own theses, but I think these studies might give new meaning to the phrase “taking on the mind of Christ”. If, subconsciously, your mind makes the decisions Christ would make, your actions will follow in the same pattern.

Jumping back to a word on desires and emotions and thoughts and speech:
How you “automatically” feel about an event (emotions) seem to just come over you. How you “automatically” interpret an event (thoughts) seems to just come to you. What you “automatically” speak when faced with a challenge can seem to just fall out of your mouth.

For example: If a person does something provoking to me, I might get an automatic feeling of anger that comes over me and I feel like doing something to him. I might even have some thoughts come to mind about doing something back to him. I might even reveal these desires by impulsively threatening to take action against him using my speech. But it is highly unlikely that I will actually DO something to him based on these “desires”. That is, I will have DECIDED to not ACT against him even though my emotions, my thoughts and my speech all point to a DESIRE to do something to him. In this case, I don’t let my desires determine my decisions and though I might have a desire to act against him, without a decision to act against him, I don’t act.

HERE’S A THOUGHT:
If we can sometimes keep from acting on our emotions and our thoughts; that is, if we can sometimes keep from acting on our DESIRES, I think we can keep from acting on them ALL THE TIME. I think the difference between “sometimes” and “all the time” is in what we have decided beforehand. You do not take any actions without first deciding to act a certain way. It is impossible to act contrary to your decisions while it is quite possible to act contrary to your desires. You can decide to act according to your harmful desires or contrary to them. You can decide to act according to your good desires or contrary to them. It’s all about decision and the subsequent action. Every harmful action is the result of a harmful decision that was probably prompted by harmful desires. Every good action is the result of a good decision that was probably prompted by the desire to do good OR you might have acted in a good way in spite of having a desire to act in some harmful way.

Harmful desires, selfish desires and hurtful desires are a fact of life for us. Harmful decisions and actions, selfish decisions and actions and hurtful decisions and actions need not be. The following table portrays in simple form that we have "good" desires and "bad" desires. We also have "good" actions and "bad" actions. Our desires and our behavior can be coupled in four different ways. What action box we "choose" to put ourselves in is a result of what decision we make.

Your DESIRES do not create your ACTIONS. Your DECISIONS create your ACTIONS. What have you DECIDED to do today?