Thought for the Day - Decisions, decisions

Hugo Simberg, Tienhaarassa, 'At The Crossroads' (1896)

A Thought for the Day for Wednesday 14th May 2025 based on Acts 1.15-26

Start:Stop - Decisions, decisions!

Georges Rouault, Christ and the Apostles, 1937-8

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, my name is Phillip Dawson.

Decisions, decisions! Before the lockdown, one newspaper reported that we each make up to 35,000 decisions every day. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me – but whatever the figure, I imagine it’s considerably lower at the moment. It may be no exaggeration to say that at the present time, life and death decisions are being made by those with responsibility for our health and wellbeing. Decisions which, for the most part, are outside of our control. Decisions which are certainly having an impact on people living in the poorest countries in the world; supporting whom is the focus of this year’s Christian Aid Week appeal, which continues until Saturday.

On Thursday, the church celebrates the life of St Matthias. Virtually all we know about him is from a few short passages in Acts of the Apostles, which I’m about to read. This tells us that he’d been a loyal follower of Jesus right from the start, as had another man, Justus. Faced with the task of selecting a replacement after the death of Judas, the eleven remaining apostles found they could not decide between Matthias and Justus, so they prayed to the Lord, before casting lots. The rest, as they say, is history - or perhaps 'unknown' history in the case of Matthias.