Random distribution of tasks (work) by e-mail- this is a rather non-trivial process, especially when the people who draw lots do not trust you and doubt your impartiality. Use one of the methods described in this article to eliminate suspicions of bias and distribute tasks (or select participants) effectively.
Steps
Encrypted Microsoft Word Document
- To create a random ordered list, mark each match not only with a letter, but also with a number, for example, A3, B6, C2, D1, E4, F5. In this case, the contestant who gets the letter D will be listed first, the contestant who gets the letter C will be listed second, and so on.
- Moreover, each letter can be assigned some task, for example, A - creating a presentation, B - taking care of food, and so on. Thus, the participant who receives the letter A will make a presentation, the participant who receives the letter B will take care of the food (bring drinks and light snack) and so on. This is a fair method of distributing tasks that no one likes.
- In any case, you need to enter all the letters in the Word document at once, and not just one.
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Encrypt the document. This will save you from accusations of distorting the results. In Word 2010 and newer, click File (in the upper left corner) and then click Info. In the menu that opens, select "Protect Document" - "Password Encryption" and enter the password. Click "OK"; Some versions of Word require you to enter your password twice. Click "Save As" and save the file in RTF format (.rtf extension).
Send the encrypted document to all participants via email. Attach a file to the letter in which you ask participants to choose a letter from a certain set of letters (in our example from A to F) and inform everyone about their choice.
- Remind members to reply to your email by clicking Reply All.
- Also mention that any letter can only be selected once.
- If you are also drawing lots, notify the participants that you will choose a letter in last turn to get rid of accusations of any advantage.
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Submit your password. After each participant selects a letter (that is, draws a match), send all participants a password to open a Word document.
Enter total"matches". That is, enter a number equal to the number of people who draw lots. On the website of the draw straws service! the number of matches is set in the special "total straws" menu, but most services (including Randomous) require you to enter, set (using the slider) or specify (in the menu) the number of numbers to be generated - this number of numbers is equal to the number of people who draw lots .
Give each "match" a name. Most generators do not allow you to enter the names of participants, so before generating numbers, create a table with names, numbers, letters, or any other designations.
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Create short matches. In most cases, there is only one short match, but you can create any number of such matches, especially when creating a random ordered list.
- If the service does not allow you to enter the names of participants, select a specific number as a short match. For example, if the number of participants is 20 people, the number 8 can be a short match.
- Moreover, to create an ordered list using a generator random numbers, select a few numbers as short matches. After receiving the results, order the participants who got certain numbers, in ascending order of these numbers.
Determine the number of people who will draw lots. The number of matches depends on this number (meaning “match pulling” is one of the draw methods). For example, if 6 people draw lots, 6 matches will be needed.
Assign a letter to each person. In our example, assign the following letters to six participants: A, B, C, D, E, F. The letters will stand for matches.
Note the short match. AT Microsoft Word create a new document, randomly select a letter and type it into the document. This letter will denote a short match.
Once upon a time, at the dawn of my churching, they gave me several pamphlets "for beginners." The place in one of them, which spoke about the method of recognizing the will of God through lots, sunk into my memory. It was proposed to write possible options on pieces of paper, hide them behind the icons in the red corner and pray three times, and then get a ready answer from behind the icons.
To be honest, I don’t see any difference here - to find out the will of God in this way or through the elder - because in both cases the outcome of the answer depends on your personal request to God in the form of a prayer. For before going to the elder, it is customary to also read a prayer in order to create in advance in one’s soul the certainty that the answer will be from God, and not from man. Having prayed before the lot, you are also sure that God will not despise your prayer.
Secondly, "mythological", more precisely, religious consciousness (however, as well as superstitious) is based on the premise that ACCIDENTS SIMPLY DO NOT EXIST IN THIS WORLD.
Thirdly, this method is sanctified by biblical examples. The apostles cast lots for their twelfth colleague. Pagan non-believers cast lots to find out about the guilt of the prophet Jonah (and the prophet himself confirmed this result up to the command to fulfill the will of the lot - to throw the culprit into the sea). The lot also pointed to the culprit of the violation of the universal fast of Jonathan. The Church elected patriarchs in this way... And so on...
There is even a rite of prayer before the lot:
"Lord Jesus Christ, revealing Your will to the Apostles by Your lot, and calling the Apostle Matthias by lot to serve Himself, pointing the lot to Elder Alexy Patriarch Tikhon of All Russia, give, Lord, and I, the indispensable one, to know Your will and give me the strength to accept and fulfill it with humility. And do not impute this petition to me as a sin, let me not be with those God-killers who cast lots for Your clothes at Your Cross, but let me be with those God-lovers to whom You, Lord, revealed Your will by lot. Do not let the enemy of our salvation laugh at me, but do with me according to Your mercy. You, Lord, gave a promise to Your servants that their prayers would be heard, hear my prayer and tell me the way, I will go to it. Amen. "
As far as I understand, there are no specific canons on this matter, so opinions within the church differ greatly. Schiegumen Savva recommended this method to all his children - including Archimandrite Raphael Karelin ("It is possible and even commendable to use lots in bewildered cases. Before that, you need to make three bows with the Jesus Prayer and read "King of Heaven", three times "Our Father", three times “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice” and “I believe.” You just need to have a living faith and trust in God”). However, Father Raphael did not dare to use this advice. At the same time, who asked him a similar question about lots, he replied that if the lot was already cast, then it must be fulfilled. Father Dimitri Smirnov is categorically against it. Compares with divination. In my opinion, he is clearly wrong here, because visiting the elders can be called fortune-telling in the same way - and then all the elders go to the trash along with the face of the Optina monks ... By the way, after all, many refer to the elders as oracles, so. ..))))
Bishop Seraphim (Domnin) wrote about casting lots that there is such a custom in church tradition, and substantiated it with the words of the book of Proverbs: “A lot is cast in the floor, but all its decision is from the Lord.” As the patristic literature says, have scriptural evidence for all your deeds. And here it is, the evidence))
Such a long theoretical preface is very necessary insofar as this ancient custom became the cause of my charm (or "charm" - I'll find out after death). It was he who brought me to the present state. Perhaps I will tell the situation in detail.
It happened one day that my mother brought me money to the monastery and gave it to me so that I could manage it. Previously, before that, I always “kicked” and didn’t take it, but this time for some reason I took it, supposedly to hand it over to the accountant. And she herself was immediately attacked by all sorts of thoughts: if you give it to an accountant or a dean, then by all means this miserable thousand rubles will go to the next ice cream for the inhabitants in mother's absence - there will be only one sin (just at that time all such money transfers ended in ice cream), it is better to give it to the locals poor people with many children, and even better, give it back to your mother, but if you get offended? all the confessors and abbesses were just away, but it was necessary to make a decision as soon as possible in order to get rid of thoughts and return to prayer (and hermits also advise not to let money spend the night at home, it is better to deal with them right away). So, with trembling, horror and prayer aggravated to the upper limit, I cast lots and it fell out - to keep it for myself. I did not expect this option at all, so I decided that, apparently, the will of God arranged it this way - but for what? .. Why do I need money in the monastery? Or for all the items required for my obedience (all sorts of stationery stuff), or does God deign me for my long-standing desire for a hermit? This question excited me even more, the turn of the matter was serious. Therefore, I decided to additionally turn to Rev. Onufry the Great, whose icon for some reason turned out to be placed in the library by someone (no one knew where it came from). I decided that he certainly knows whether I am capable of hermitage or not, because he experienced everything himself ... I asked him to indicate the answer as follows: I will cast lots in the form of paper balls with answers, which one will roll up closer to the icon - that one will be the answer! .. How surprised I was that these lumps flew somehow STRANGE: one of them flew off to the side at an angle of 90 degrees, as if someone had thrown it away, and the second hit the icon directly !.. I understood: this is a sign, the answer is DAN! Hermitage has fallen!.. And as soon as I saw it, a quiet joy came into my heart and the words appeared: "The Lord does not reject your zeal!.."
I was afraid to fall into delusion and went to our Staritsa as soon as she arrived at the monastery. In "Elder Siluan" it is written that it is necessary to catch the very first word of the confessor, and what will not be the first is human ... My first question was: how to relate to lots? She replied that as the will of God, that the Church does not reject this method. According to all the laws of the “first word”, she confirmed the will of God!.. But as soon as I told her in more detail, she began to reason somehow like a human being and didn’t answer anything specifically. By the way, even the abbess said that they had no right to bless hermits... (Only later it turned out that it was not the Naumovites who were hermits in the Caucasus, but the children of Elder Kirill).
I began to passively wait for the denouement of this story, in full confidence that the Lord Himself will do everything.
Meanwhile, the thoughts of hermitage flourished in every detail, and I began to plan the acquisition of the most necessary things. The most essential piece of equipment should have been a cast-iron cauldron of two liters in size, and such that it could be hung on a fire and put on the stove. But it was painful somehow it was a pity to spend money on it out of a single thousand rubles, and the purchase itself, and the search for goods in monastic conditions were almost impossible. And here is another sign! There are no accidents! I went to another obedience - to graze cows. And one fine morning in one of the forests I found just such a bowler thrown out by someone! .. The Lord already materially began to give signs and prepare everything I needed! .. But even then, just in case, I cast lots - should I take this bowler , for me, is he here ... And it fell out - of course, for me! My joy knew no bounds
Six months passed, and one huge temptation happened, with which no one helped me cope, and the Elder clearly said that I had to cope here alone. And I left the monastery. I also determined by lot that now is the TIME, that you need to go to Altai (and to a more or less specific area; later I looked on the Internet for a map and temples - everything coincides, including with my conscience)).
To be honest, the process of leaving was the first sign that something seemed to be not going according to plan ... The plan was this: I would walk to the bus station, from where I would go straight to Altai. But the sisters on horseback intercepted me, and then for the first time I doubted the correctness of this path ... Something went wrong, something I did not foresee ...
I was deprived of my obedience by taking off my cassock and sent home. In addition, all the monastery things were eventually taken away from me, which means - all things in general, so there was nothing to travel to Altai. I had to take a wait-and-see tactic and stop in the world. And to figure out why the Lord did not let me go to Altai right away.
When I found a lot of usefulness on the Internet on the topic of survival in the wild, I realized that God simply delivered me from premature death. For some reason, I should have lived longer)) By the way, even dying "in a feat" was a chance even in the process of escaping from the monastery - then I almost drowned in a swamp, I was already waist-deep, but I was saved by a prayer to the Mother of God - somehow miraculously stayed on a thin-thin twig, it is not clear how it pulled me out of the quagmire and at the same time immediately broke))
It turns out that not all life goes according to the human plan real plan much smarter!
But the disappointment in his own planning for the time turned into a disappointment in the lot. And instead of in again throwing it, I began to think logically, trying to understand the incomprehensible fate of God. Assuming that the Lord wanted me to study hermitage, I took a trip to. The case ended with a draw. He told me to leave for Russia to marry - precisely for the same former monk, whom fate introduced me to on the Internet immediately after leaving the monastery ... I clarified: when? The lot answered that when my mentor herself kicks me out. It seemed unrealistic to me, but - alas - this happened the very next day! And this again became for me another sign of the fidelity of my path.
Just to be sure, I did one last check. Namely, she suggested the possibility of the fallacy of the lot due to one-person prayer. And I decided to test it with a joint prayer. Bottom line - everything is correct.
My spiritual Sukhumi brother and sister considered that all this was a whim and sheer charm. My argument against this was the case of Abraham: after all, he also decided to openly violate the Commandment (to kill) in full confidence that he had learned the will of God. So in my case, they say, the Lord can stop the hand of Abraham and stop the erroneous action ...
This is where the strangest and most painful thing happened. When I arrived in Russia, my future husband did not meet. And I perceived this precisely as the aversion of the hand of Abraham from the murder ... And I went to the nearest monastery to my old friend.
The three days spent there were the most painful time. I split my brains into schizophrenia, I could not understand in any way - whether the lot was wrong ... And if I was wrong, then there is no God. Meanwhile, His reality is more real than myself... And in the end, I realized that I was required to act. In order to preserve faith and reason, one must still draw by lot.
And when the decision was made, all schizophrenia went away, the world didn’t last in my soul)) And this despite all the canonical curses addressed to me ...
Not for nothing that two people inspired me in recent times that the only cure for charm is to visit it and experience it ... Perhaps, until the end of my life, this issue will not be resolved for me unambiguously, because I fully admit the option of charm. That's why the pain, that's why "keep your mind in hell" is done involuntarily.
Wonderful works of God!
Shalom and Bracha, Rav Klimovsky Ovadia. Thanks a lot for an exhaustive answer. God bless you. Tell me, please, when situations arise in life where you need to make a choice, what to do? Of course, first of all, it is prayer and waiting for an answer from G-d. Is it possible to cast lots in such cases? Wouldn't this be a temptation of G-d? What does the Torah say about this? What is the opinion of the Wise Men? Regards, Yuri
Responsible Rabbi Ovadia Klimovsky
Hello, dear Yuri! Thank you very much for your kind feedback and for your very interesting questions.
The ability to make a choice is a special privilege granted to man, which distinguishes him from all other earthly creatures, and, according to Rav Chaim of Volozhin, in a sense, likens him to the Creator. You are right, a person who wants to do the right thing always has the opportunity to find the answer to the question of how to do it in a given situation. The Almighty does not abandon us, He brought us into this world with a specific purpose, and if we intend to follow it, He will give us all the opportunities for this.
What are the ways to find out what is the best thing to do? First of all, of course, you need to know the Laws of God. Often, after carefully studying the relevant section, we can find that our question is removed. For example, we consider whether it is better to go on a Saturday excursion with friends at their request (and, thereby giving them pleasure, to fulfill the commandment “love your neighbor”) or to stay at home, let’s say, also for some useful activity. When we discover the Laws of the Sabbath, we find that there is no question of going anywhere on the Sabbath at all.
It is good to get close to a wise and righteous person who can both suggest what the law is in this case and simply give advice when the books of laws are silent. When tzadik sincerely wishes well to the one who asks for his advice (and the righteous are such that the fate of every Jew cares for them as if he were their relative), then he receives the help of Heaven and his advice turns out to be useful.
But we should not allow our decision to be influenced by any external events, for example, a cat ran across the road, bread fell out of our hand, etc. It is called nihush, divination, and is rejected by the Torah. It is interesting that in the Torah and the Talmud we find several examples when the great righteous were engaged, at first glance, precisely helloshush. Of course, it wasn't a guess. Commentators explain what actually happened, leaving us some opportunity to see hints, signs for ourselves in what is happening around. However, you should be very careful with this. There is no place here to cover the whole topic, let's just consider the example of Eliezer, the faithful servant of Abraham, who went in search of a bride for Isaac. Stopping at the well, he, addressing the Creator in passionate prayer, announced: “If the girl helps me get drunk and water the camels, I will understand that You have done me a favor by pointing to her. So she is Yitzhak's betrothed." And so it happened. Rivkah showed extraordinary kindness in taking care of a stranger, and Eliezer brought her to Isaac. Our wise men say: this is an example of real divination! And then the question arises: did Eliezer, a learned and righteous person whom Abraham entrusted with such a responsible task, violated such an explicit prohibition?
The Rambam (Laws of Idolatry 11:4) forbids doing like Eliezer. Comment Kesef Mishne justifies Eliezer, in accordance with the opinion of the Rambam, by the fact that he did not rely on blind chance, but simply checked whether the girl had the main quality that the foremother of the Jewish people needs - mercy. Thus, although the sages teach Eliezer's act as an example of what the forbidden looks like nihush, Eliezer himself did not guess at all. Raavad, arguing with Rambam, argues that in this case there is no prohibition to guess - after all, a person does not rely on any superstitious signs, but simply looks for a hint from the Almighty. However, Raavad believes that in this way one still does not know how one should actually act, unless the hints are repeated three times. And if a person himself appoints a method of verification in advance, then this is like a lottery, about which it is said: “A lot is thrown into the bosom, but all its decision is from G-d” (Mishlei 16:33).
Without going into the many details that the rabbis talk about, let's say that this method of resolving doubts should not be used without consulting a rabbi. If this check is based at least partly on logic, then perhaps it will be allowed.
Another thing is the lot, which the Torah also allows in order to determine, for example, which animal will be sacrificed on Yom Kippur, and which one will go to the desert to the rock of Azazel. Moreover, the allotments of the tribes of Israel in the Holy Land were also determined by lot. In the Talmud and the Laws, we find the repeated use of lottery to determine who will get the honor of fulfilling a certain commandment or receiving a portion, etc. However, to cast lots to decide the vital important question, do not rush without looking for other ways to solve. It is known that in some especially important cases our teachers used the so-called lot of the Vilna Gaon: they opened at random the pages of a special edition of the Tanakh and chose a certain line. Written there should "hint" to the answer. Perhaps this is similar to another “way”: it used to be customary to ask the first child coming out of the cheder: “What verse (Torah) did you learn today?”. However, not everyone can be worthy to understand the answer to their question from what they hear.
How does the Orthodox Church feel about the custom of casting lots? Is it possible to be guided for making important life decisions by the result of the lot that has been drawn?
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
AT biblical times lots were often used to determine the will of God. AT Holy Scripture it says: “A lot is cast in the floor, but all its decision is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:33). Once a year on the day of atonement (Yom Kippur), the high priest cast lots for two goats: "one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat" (Lev. 16:8). The Lord commanded by lot to divide the Promised Land among the tribes of Israel (see: Joshua 18:6-10). This is the wisdom of God. The conquered Canaan land was distinguished by great contrasts in climatic, geographical, economic and other respects. There were entire areas completely unsuitable for habitation (the Judean Desert). Other areas, on the contrary, were fertile, had a mild warm climate, and were close to the sea, such as Galilee. There could be strife. It is notorious from history that the most painful and bloody disputes were over territories. Since all the representatives of the chosen people knew that the Lord God determined the method of dividing by lot, and believed that “all its decision (that is, the lot) is from the Lord,” then throughout the 15-century history of Israel there has never been dissatisfaction with their inheritances between the tribes . With the help of lots, under David, the lines of ministry of priests and Levites were distributed (see: 1 Chr. 24:5; 25:8).
It is necessary to clearly see the fundamental difference between the lot that people faithful to the Lord resort to after intense prayer to resolve issues that are very important for the life of the Church (the election of the Apostle Matthias (see: Acts 1: 21-26); Patriarch Tikhon at the very beginning of the Russian turmoil XX century) or the people (the division of Palestine according to destinies), from those cases when it is determined which chess player will play with white pieces, or when two boys decide who will get the candy they have. All this is just a technique to avoid disputes and quarrels. In these cases, the result of the lot is probabilistic-statistical. AT Everyday life a person has a certain space of freedom in matters that do not affect his life in any way. It would be all the more blasphemous to think about the will of God when the robbers divide the loot by lot.
The pagans also resorted to lot when it was necessary to accept important decisions. It is impossible to admit that in these activities of people who attribute the result of the lot to idols, the will of God could be manifested. In the poem "Against Marcion, in five books", attributed to Tertullian, casting lots by pagans is equated with their other obscene activities - "following empty idols, producing a crowd of gods, draw lots, to guess, to call the stars by false names, to predict the fate of those born ”(Bk. 1. Ch. 1).
However, in those cases when Divine Providence used some pagans as His instrument, the result of the lot was a manifestation of the will of God. So, at the beginning of 588, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. The Chaldean king did not immediately decide on this step. At this time, there were several uprisings among the conquered peoples. Nebuchadnezzar was ready to go to the capital of the Ammonites Rabbah. Being in difficulty, the king resorted to drawing lots. And the lot fell on Jerusalem. This is in full agreement with what is written in the book of the prophet Jeremiah: “And now I am giving all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant” (Jer. 27: 6). The prophet Jonah, contrary to the command of God, boarded a ship to flee to Tarshish. However, “the Lord raised a strong wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was ready to be broken” (Jonah 1: 4). The pagan sailors drew lots to determine the culprit that caused the storm to rise. The lot pointed to Jonah.
In history Orthodox Church repeatedly resorted to lottery to decide contentious issues. It was decided by lot where to put the cancer of the newly glorified noble princes Boris and Gleb. The chronicle reports that in 1467 in Novgorod they resorted to lottery in deciding which saint to build a temple. In the 17th century, the disputed cases of clergymen, who were forbidden to take the oath, were decided by lot.
Following the example of the holy apostles, the Patriarch was chosen three times by lot. The first time - on March 20, 1642, Archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery Joseph. Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov) in a multivolume history of the Church describes this event in the following way: “When the hierarchs who arrived in Moscow presented themselves to the sovereign, he asked them, first of all, to raise fervent prayers to God, that He would grant His Church a new supreme shepherd and teacher. And when they left, he ordered to prepare six lots and write names on them, on each lot one name of those six persons whom he himself had previously chosen (including two archbishops - Serapion of Suzdal and Pachomius of Astrakhan, one archimandrite - Simonov Monastery Joseph and three abbots - the Moscow Epiphany Monastery of Jonah, Solovetsky Markell and Pskov Svyatogorsky Macarius), sealed all these lots with his royal seal and sent through the boyar his prince Alexei Mikhailovich Lvov to the cathedral church to the saints who were there so that they, having prayed to God and the Most Pure Mother of God , took out before her miraculous icon Vladimirskaya one of the lots sent, “whom God wills and the Most Pure Mother of God will choose to be patriarch,” and that lot was sent unopened to the sovereign. The saints first took three lots, placed them in the precious panagia worn by the former patriarchs, placed the panagia in an icon case on a veil before the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, and began the prayer. At the end of the prayer service, the eldest of the bishops, Metropolitan Afony of Novgorod, ordered Metropolitan Varlaam of Rostov to take out one of the three lots that were in the panagia and hold it in his hands, and set aside the other two. Then they put in the same panagia three more lots out of six sent by the king, placed it before the same miraculous icon on a shroud, again performed a prayer service, and another lot was taken out of the panagia by Metropolitan Serapion of Sarsk, and the other two were set aside. Finally, two lots previously taken out of it were placed in the same panagia and placed before the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. At the end of the third service, one of these two lots was drawn by Archbishop Serapion of Suzdal and presented to Metropolitan Affoniy and the entire Council. Affoniy, without opening the lot, gave it to Prince Lvov for delivery to the sovereign. The tsar unsealed the lot in front of his entire royal synclite and announced that “God and the Most Pure Theotokos be pleased to be Patriarch Joseph, Archimandrite of the Simonov Monastery,” and immediately sent Prince Lvov to the cathedral church to announce this to Archimandrite Joseph himself in front of the entire consecrated Cathedral ”(Kn. 6. Chapter 3). Patriarch Joseph took great care of the strict fulfillment of church charters, the splendor of church services, the improvement of churches and spiritual enlightenment.
By lot, Metropolitan Nikon of Novgorod (1605-1681) was chosen as patriarch. Arising with him church schism does not give the right to question that this election was the will of God. The first king of the chosen people, Saul, ended his reign extremely unfavorably, but he was chosen by God: “The Lord revealed to Samuel the day before the arrival of Saul and said: tomorrow at this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you anoint him as the ruler of My people - Israel” (1 Sam. 9:15-16). We are not to evaluate the ways of the Lord with the limited human mind.
The election of the patriarch at the Local Council on November 5/18, 1917 took place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior after a prayer service in front of the miraculous Vladimir Icon Mother of God. Elder Alexy Zosimovsky, a man of holy life, chose the one who scored less than the first two. Metropolitan Anthony, who received more than half of the votes (309) in the voting, later wrote to Patriarch Tikhon: “This election must be called primarily a matter of Divine Providence, for the reason that it was unconsciously predicted by your friends of youth, your comrades in the academy. Just as a hundred and fifty years ago, the boys in the Novgorod bursa, in a friendly way, joking at the piety of their comrade Timofey Sokolov, incensed in front of him with their bast shoes, singing the magnificence of him as a God-pleaser, and then their grandchildren already made a real censing before imperishable relics his, that is, your heavenly patron Tikhon of Zadonsk, so your own comrades called you patriarch when you were still a layman and when neither they nor you yourself could even think about the actual implementation of such a name.
It is necessary to say especially about those who, being faced with a choice, like to resort to drawing lots. It shouldn't. The Lord has given us reason so that, gradually ascending in spiritual life, we can acquire the gift of reasoning. If it is so easy to decide questions with the help of lots, then experienced mentors and labors would not be needed to know the truth. A person who resorts to casting lots easily falls into temptation. After the lot, not having strong faith, he begins to be tormented by the doubt that the lot indicated the will of God. Doubts grow, but he is afraid to refuse to fulfill what is indicated by lot.
If it is difficult to make a decision, one must pray intensely, reading akathists or canons to the Lord or the Mother of God for some time. Starting to read and after it each time ask for enlightenment. Experience shows that the struggle of thoughts subsides and it becomes clear what needs to be done. “Pray that the will of God be done; you know that there is nothing better than the will of God” (St. Philaret of Moscow).
