bad decisions

one thing that's been bothering me a lot is the whole "bad decisions" trend going around. why do we celebrate making bad decisions together?

often i hear things like "heyyyy let's make go bad decisions together!" as a way to segue into hanging out or going out to eat or staying up late, and i'm like.. really? why? i absolutely do not understand why it has to be phrased in this way.

yeah, i get the appeal behind it. yeah, i get the convenience factor of giving the time/activity a concrete name. but are those necessary, especially at the potential damage it could do?

the appeal - why is making bad decisions appealing? well, quite frankly, it's because we're all geared to want to make bad decisions, to rebel and break the rules. it's exciting, it can make us feel like we're living "life on the edge", and it's just fun to break rules.

the convenience - in my experience, "let's make bad decisions!" is most often equivalent to "let's stay up and talk!" or "let's go out to get food!". the last time i checked, "let's stay up and talk" and "let's go out to get food" were perfectly acceptable phrases for initiating those activities.

i agree that it helps to get people together in places where bonding can happen, and that's something i fully support.

still, why do we have to call it "bad decisions"?

my beef with the expression is this:

the appeal comes from our internal (and perhaps hidden) desire for rebellion. whether it's that we want to stay up later than we think we should, or we want to eat late at night when we know we shouldn't, or we want to reassure ourselves of our power to choose and control our own lives -- those all stem from a rebellious attitude. my question is, why do we not rebuke this rebellious attitude, but instead, we advocate and pursue and celebrate it, in groups, and with other believers, no less?

here's a question for you: do you believe that the "bad decisions" you're choosing to make are actually bad? if so, why do you still choose it? if not, why do you call it that?

we're called to set an example for others and live out our beliefs, because we know there are people watching and observing and looking up to us. i don't want our community to set an example of supporting rebellious mindsets and lifestyles, simply because of a name we have for an activity.

notice i've been writing this whole post using 1st person plural pronouns - us, we. the reason being that, even though i don't advocate and have never used the phrase "bad decisions" in this way, i know that i support the community's actions and words, whether actively through reinforcement or passively through acceptance. so, this is me being active and encouraging us to think about our choice of words a little bit more carefully.

this "bad decisions" phrase is, at best, an oddly-named activity that facilitates community bonding, and, at worst, a bad witness and a comfort for complacency.