Agatha Nolen

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Pros and Cons

I was raised to appreciate the scientific method, where rational thought processes arrive at predictable conclusions. Almost all the management courses that I’ve attended in my career teach logical decision-making, often promoting listing the pros and cons of a situation to “score” the correct answer. Some systems are elaborate where certain items are weighted heavier than others, whereas other systems rely on the length of the list to direct our paths.

I still believe in a detailed approach to work, carefully considering all options and barriers before proceeding, but I know that my human mind has significant limitations. Although I can list the pros and cons of an action with today’s information, I can’t see into the future.

In looking back on my life, I’m amazed at how many events or people seemed random at the time. Examining them now, they were the spark that took me down a path when I had many choices. I wasn’t sure why or how, but I was sure of the “what”. I see now how the “dots” are connected.

It was the major professor that I happened to meet at a luncheon that convinced me to go back to college and finish my Master’s degree in 1982. Now I have a Ph.D.

It was the boyfriend who first took me to a Sunday School class at a Southern Baptist church where I discovered Bible study. I now read Scripture every day.

It was the friend who called to ask if I’d be interested in transferring to Nashville in 2002. It is where I live now, and where I have everything I need. I have the greatest job of my career at the greatest company I’ve ever worked for. I belong to the most loving, Scriptural based church where I am humbled to serve.

I thought it was a random call or a random meeting, but was it? In my eyes it was a “coincidence” because I couldn’t see the future, but God knew it was part of His plan for me all along.

Today is Good Friday. We experience first hand the mystery of God’s love for us.  We can’t explain it because we are incapable of imagining it, and we can’t see into the future when God’s kingdom will reign.

I’m letting Him connect the “dots” in my life.

Have a Blessed Easter!
Agatha

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Pros and Cons Agatha Nolen