When Your Best is Not Good

#100

Friend,

Sometimes, there are no good choices.

Don’t you love a win-win decision? Don’t you love it when everyone walks away happy? Remember 17 years ago when that happened?

OK, it probably happened more recently than that, but win-win is hard, because sometimes the circumstances and the people around the decision make it so that the key decisions are impossible to be good for everyone.

And sometimes the best decision still has negative implications.

You’ve experienced this before:

• You had to decide something at work that either way upset half of your team.

• You had to choose a treatment path that involved uncertainty and pain no matter which direction you took.

• You had to decide whether to declare bankruptcy or continue to pay the overwhelming and crushing debt.

I learned the insight about no good decision as I was leading a church through COVID. Our church, like most churches, was filled with individuals who saw, experienced, and perceived the pandemic vastly differently. I surveyed my congregation, which confirmed my worst fear: it was impossible to make everyone happy.

Eventually, I realized that if I were chasing a good decision, then I would exhaust myself with an impossible task. Instead, I aimed to make the best decision knowing that it was not good for everyone.

I don’t know what decision you are facing today or this week that is rife with negative implications, but I know this: Don’t waste your energy and emotions on finding that impossible good decision. Instead, debate, decipher, and decide the best decision available and move forward.

Love,

Aaron

P.S. This is my 100th Letter to a Weary Soul! I just want to say thank you for reading these. I’ve been so encouraged as you share comments, texts, or say such things as “You should make these into a book.” Right now, I’m just going to keep writing, keep sharing, and keep trying to encourage you.