a fork in the road

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it”

- Yogi Berra, American Baseball player

The above quote is often used to make fun of the baseball player Yogi Berra. He was a brilliant baseball player but his quotes often didn’t make sense and induced a lot of humor. (More of his humorous quotes can be found at http://workinghumor.com/quotes/yogi_berra.shtml#)


In this case, the quote doesn’t make sense because a fork in the road is basically a Y-junction (junction in the shape of the letter “Y”). A Y-junction splits a road into 2 separate lanes. So you can’t just take the fork. You have to take either the left lane or the right lane!

So often in life we come to these forks in the road, times when we need to make a choice between 2 options each with its pros and cons. It could be deciding if we should pursue after an initial crush or kill it for fear of failure / humiliation. It could be deciding whether to start a business to pursue your dreams or stick to a job for the comfort of stability.

How do we know which choice to make? Of course, as a Christian, I know the answer is actually very simple: follow God’s plan. The problem is… how do we know what God’s plan is?

It would be nice if God created some divine intervention to show us clearly what path to take. For instance, wouldn’t it be nice if every time a guy had a minor crush on a girl, he just needed to turn on the radio to know what God wants him to do? If you hear James Blunt’s Beautiful you would know “but it’s time to face the truth I’ll never be with you”. But if you hear Avril Lavigne’s “I want to be your girlfriend” you know God is telling you she likes you too.

Alas, life isn’t that simple and sometimes I fall into that trap of trying to read too much into the things I notice while trying to make a decision. If I am thinking about a job and all of a sudden I happen to come across a lot of articles about making sure you always work for God only, should I really take that as a hint that God wants me to change job? If I’m offered a job I didn’t even apply for at exactly the same time I was planning to quit, is it really a sign that God wants me to change to that job?

Those are external influences which you never really know for sure. The good news is that we have an internal influence that can always be trusted. Once we are baptized with the holy spirit, the holy spirit remains within us and always tries to prompt us towards the right decisions. This prompting goes beyond our conscience because it can direct us to do things for the sake of others rather than ourselves. The question is: can I hear God’s “soft prompting”? Or are we too overwhelmed by the worries / temptations of this world?
Well, it’s a lot easier to block out those worries/temptations when I know that at the end of all days, I will be with God and nothing else matters. Knowing that I’ve already won the ultimate “first prize” makes seemingly big risks not that big after all. For instance, I am more than prepared to give up a high-paying but unethical job because I know that the financial reward is nothing compared to the reward of staying true to God’s principles. I would also know that temporary setbacks should not deter me from my original decision.

In another way, knowing that the ultimate aim in life is to be with God, I know that my decisions also need to guide me towards growing closer to God. In work, that means bearing fruits from the talents God gave me. In relationships, it means pursuing relationships that can draw me closer to God rather than distract me away from Him.

Making a decision is never easy. But I must never make the mistake of relying on my own wisdom or worldly wisdom to make that decision.