What happens when you pursue a goal? Hopefully all of your decisions will become influenced or “informed” by the desire to reach that goal.

Running a 5k

If your goal is to compete in a 5k, then some training regimens should start to shape the habits of your life. If you have a goal to get a specific time in that 5k then your training will be even further shaped by that goal.

What if you just started guessing using trial and error to achieve your goal? Would you meet that goal? You might if you’re very lucky. But you might not. You might actually injure yourself and ensure you aren’t ever able to run another 5k.

Say you hire a team of counselors to help achieve that goal. Let’s just say these people are successful at what they do, but they aren’t necessarily athletes. Those counselors will be better than not having any help at all. They will probably give good advice about discipline habits and over all success principles. But consider, do you want the advise of unhealthy, overweight desk jockeys to help you achieve a fitness goal? Wouldn’t you want them at least to be interested in taking the journey with you? Might that make them a little more purposed and focused on the right kind of counsel?

Say you decide to hire a team of counselors instead who are athletes. Now you might even have a better chance of doing well in the race. These advisors might act more like coaches and have even more specific counsel in the area of diet and exercise. Now you would probably be really set to do well in your race.

What if you hire a team of running experts? I would say the chance of meeting that goal of getting a specific time in your 5k event just became a very likely possibility.

The kind and quality of people and information fueling a decision determines greatly the outcome of that decision.

The right counselors for the goal are a tremendous advantage.

Notice I said the right counselors. Just any old counselors aren’t going to help. There will always be plenty of perspectives to line up in support of a decision.

Driving to a Destination

If I want to get to my destination faster I should go faster right? So how much faster should I go? Can I travel at 100mph on the highway and get there faster? Yes. But it could mean a deadly car accident, a heavy traffic fine or who knows what else.

Getting there faster is a decision. But without the right supporting information that decision could have tragic consequences. How about this, I want to get there as quickly and safely as possible while obeying the traffic laws.

What just happened? I widened my understanding of how to make an informed decision and increased the possibility of reaching my goal and getting there alive.

You might say I brought in some value statements. I added some vision clarifiers to the goal. And with those clarifiers in place I can get creative with my path and process to achieve the goal.

I might decide to eliminate some of the snack stops on my drive. If I did that I would have added a clarifier. Getting there quickly is more important than getting to my destination comfortably. In others words, “speed over snacks.”

But if I delegate the decision forming process to a governing group of snackers, and they highly value their personal comfort of snacking, and their desire to see everyone else get snacks above the goal of speed - I have a core value conflict on my hands.

But these are great people! I love them. They are my friends. They are good travel companions! I trust them and I have delegated them to help me achieve my goal!

Guess what. They aren’t going to help you, they are going to hurt you. Unless you give them the clarifiers and qualifiers of your purpose. And unless they agree to move towards the vision and away from their personal comfort.

That is why you don’t want “consensus counsel” in your life. That would be uninformed counsel. You want counsel that is informed on the specifics of your goals. And you want informed counsel within a purpose driven context.

Some friends are your “inspiration and encouragement” counsel. That’s great. You and I need tons of encouragement. But those same people don’t need to inspire you to make unwise, ill-advised, uninformed life choices.

Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of (purpose focused) counselors they are established. (author emphasis added)

You can’t get counsel until you have purpose. You don’t seek counsel to get your purpose. Your purpose comes from heaven. Your main multitude of counsel before any other people has to come from scripture. Think about the diversity of voices represented in scripture. Not just in individual Holy Spirit inspired authorship but in the diversity of literature focus. Prophetic. Poetic. Narrative. Letters. All shape wise counsel and fuel a potential God given vision with a God given purpose and destiny for our lives.

My consult with counsel should never determine my why or my purpose. They should serve only to inform and to shape the journey and help me achieve the end results. Without that guiding counsel my purpose could be disappointed like it just said in Proverbs 15:22.

Even more important, if they are to remain trusted and advised counsel, I need to keep them informed on the purpose and values that will keep the vision path clear and focused.

Because on any given day my closest counsel will still have the tendency to say, “OH! Look here, this is another path, this is my personal favorite! Let’s go here, O please O please, let’s go over here now!”

And if you can’t say no to their path because you think it isn’t healthy for the relationship, you don’t understand what counsel is about. You don’t understand who should be on your team and why.

Just think how different Job’s life would have been had he listened to his friends counsel. Job 2. Your friends don’t want to endure suffering to see the vision come to pass. They don’t want you to suffer, and they don’t want to suffer with you. So the pain and friction stemming from the clarity of vision is pushing them to give you uninformed advice. Don’t take it!

I have a new passion for stand up paddle boarding. I think about it all the time. I am always looking at the weather and looking to plan my next trip out on the water. I have learned a few things in my short stint as a stand up paddle boarder. I have learned that wind is not your friend.

If I was wind surfing that would be another story. But I don’t want wind, I want a slow breeze at best when I am out on the water, otherwise it competes with my ability to get anywhere and can turn a serene journey into an all out battle for survival!

As much as I want to be on the paddle board, I look ahead to see what the conditions are like as I plan my trips out on the water.

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

That verse sounds absurdly simple.

See the danger ahead and make an informed decision to avoid it.

But I have sat in countless meeting rooms with leadership teams, creative teams, church boards, and even family dinner tables where the echo chamber of opinion led the path of decision making to a bad consequential end.

All because wisdom derived from a purpose driven goal appointing the right people, in the right place, at the right time were completely absent from the process. The result is the “echo chamber of us.” The results of a healthy decision void vacuum created by an insider disconnected culture are bad decisions. Uninformed decisions. Every single time.

Legendary Uninformed Decisions

Solomon in the Bible let his desire for the wrong women outweigh his divinely given gift of wisdom and discernment. He new better and did otherwise. And he paid the price.

Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12 chose to listen to his “friend circle” from his younger years instead of the wise counsel of elders. Read how that turned out for him.

Then there was the decision of King David who should have been in battle, who instead stayed home to Netflix and chill while enjoying the perks of his personal wealth - which ended in a murder plot cover up and a lingering generational family curse over his household relationships.

I believe Jesus said, “get behind me satan,” when Peter thought he had Jesus “best interest” at heart.

Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Imagine if Jesus listened to the uninformed counsel of Peter. Heaven gave Jesus the master plan. A plan He let drive the purpose of his life from start to finish. A plan he kept reminding, teaching, modeling, demonstrating and proving over and over again in the presence of his closest followers.

Listen up. The people closest to you often don’t have a clue of the purpose and the vision clarifiers that should be guiding their counsel in your life. You need to remind them often. God’s purpose and plan is too precious to get this wrong.

Don’t let uninformed people make decisions on your behalf. Don’t keep making uninformed decisions about your future and about God’s purpose for your life. Get a course and stay the course. Don’t be afraid to challenge the accepted thinking in the room and push for clarity that comes from a compelling purpose and guides an informed decision making process.

Get in and stay in the deep multitude of counsel that comes from the Holy Spirit inspired, forever settled in heaven, Word of Truth for your life. Let it determine and guide His vision for you and for every decision that you face.