THE HARDEST DECISION and WHY

During my lifetime as a single person and later with my wife and then my wife and our children, I have had to make some tough decisions about different factors posed as confrontations and challenges.

Some of these have been professional, others to do with social and economic priorities, while a third cash related to expectations of a personal and individual nature.

All of those decisions came down to choice – choosing one outcome or the other, selecting one direction or another and so on.

I think the hardest decision I have ever had to make goes back to my upbringing and adherence to faith. My parents brought me up as a Seventh–Day Adventist.

As a child, teenager and young adult, I adhered to the faith externally and, for the most part, within my inner self.

As I was coming into my early 20s, I began, for various reasons, to question my faith.

One rather catalytic event triggered the first doubts in my mind that went below the surface and began searching my inner soul.

I have been brought up as an Advantest to believe that’s a great deal of work needed to be done to further the work of the church within Australia and in outreach terms. Members of aboriginal congregations were encouraged to give, give in to give it when it came to monetary contribution to the church. There was a lot of work to be done and a shortening period in which to do it, and therefore, every pound – later dollars, after currency decimalisation in 1966 – helped.

Our church congregation had chosen me to be one of the representatives for our area at the annual conference of the church. During proceedings, financial reports were offered on what was the wealth status of the Conference.

Part of that was shared by the church’s state treasurer, who showed the church to have significant and substantial investments in a property portfolio that was growing and adding to the material wealth of the church. Having been brought up with the idea of giving to facilitate church expenditure on reaching people, I was somewhat taken aback by the fact that so much of what was given was going Into property portfolio and other material investments rather than being directed, as I saw it toward reaching people who needed support and from the churches for you point a realisation of salvation’s opportunities.

I was told that what the church was doing was right and I was out of order in questioning monetary priorities.