By Richard Nichols, Spiritual Reflections

We are entering a time when we all have decisions to make. Our country’s leaders and the leaders around the world are confronted with the sobering reality of struggling financial markets. It is certainly a time in which difficult decisions are going to have to be made in order to avoid throwing the country, and perhaps the nations of the world, into a complete economic tailspin.

We are going to be confronted, in just a few short days, with the charge of making responsible decisions about who will act in the leadership roles of this country, and also who will serve in our local governmental posts and our school boards. Our choices will not only be affected by our country’s leaders and what they have done, but they will determine who gets to make decisions for our future, as well, and in what ways those decisions will be carried out. We find if we are humble that we are somewhat unsure of ourselves as we approach these decisions and where we fit in the overall scheme of things. Will we ask for God‘s help and guidance in making them?

When I was 18, I chose to enlist in the Army National Guard. I wish that I could tell you that my decision was solely (and purely) motivated by my love of my country; but the simple fact is that it was the last year of young men facing the draft and my lottery number was 19, the government was drafting up to number 90, the war in Vietnam was still dragging on and student deferments were no longer available. I knew that I was not a conscientious objector to service in the military, and at that time the Army National Guard was rarely "activated," although in times of national emergency we knew that was a possibility. And so, taking all these things into account, and not being averse to the prospect of military service, I enlisted in the 204th Medical Battalion, out of the Minneapolis Armory. I served for my six years, and I re-enlisted for one more year.

I have looked back on those days and that decision as formative to my life story. But it was another 10 years later when I happened to look back on it with the aid of a professor at my seminary who told me about how it was a perfect illustration of how we make decisions motivated by only by one or both of two emotions, love and fear. He was gentle as he explained it to me after I had tried to explain, but not justify, my military service as being reflective of my love of country. And he helped me understand that it was just as much a fear of being drafted and winding up as many of my contemporaries had in Vietnam that motivated my decision. He was right.

In all the years since -- and there have been plenty of them -- I have never been able to debunk the central truth which he told me that day that all decisions are motivated at their most basic levels by love and/or fear. These are the primal motivators. They are what leads us to faith, and they are what calls us to protect ourselves and our families. They are the emotions which call us to citizenship and service.

In this season of responsibility it becomes important for me to remember this central truth of my life. That even as I struggle to be a child of God, a good citizen, a good parent, a responsible member of my community, I am also called to examine why it is that I make the choices that I make. Is it fear that motivates me? Or is it love?

And all I can do today is to encourage each of us to do is to take a moment, take a deep breath, and realize that with every decision we make, we are expressing our priorities and their motivations. They might reflect our attitudes toward life, towards the values that we try to live, toward the goals which we set for ourselves.

But, most importantly, our choices reflect our attitudes about God and what it is that we believe about God’s presence to us, and what it is that God expects us to do with the lives with which we have been blessed. I certainly cannot make your choices for you, nor would I ever presume to do so. But, I can encourage each of us to recognize that when we cast a vote, or decide what to offer as a gift to our faith community, or decide that we don’t like or don’t trust certain groups of people, we are doing our theology. We are reflecting in our choices our response to God’s call, and in so doing we express which emotional response motivates us most, love or fear.

No one can do it for you. Your theology, your understanding of God’s reality lived out through your life, is your own. Your citizenship is your own. Your priorities are your own. As children of God’s creation, we have to do what God calls us to, to take responsibility for our lives, and own up to our motivations, and trust in the grace of God to guide us.

 (Rev. Richard Nichols is pastor at New Spirit United Church of Christ in Savage and can be reached at www.NewSpiritUCC.org. He is one of several area pastors who write columns for “Spiritual Reflections,” a column that is one of several opinion and commentary pieces appearing regularly in this newspaper.)