God's Will Made Easy in Three Simple Steps - Just Kidding!

God's will for your life begins today. Do you believe that? Back in the day (at my age, that can mean one of several decades, but I am referring especially to the 70's and 80's), we used to hear this about God's will for your life: "God has a perfect will for your life (based on Romans 12:2), and God has a permissive will for your life (based, I suppose, on some Old Testament stories). But is that true? Is there a "Plan A" and a "Plan B" for our lives? Well, surely the course of our lives is affected by the decisions we make today, but I am not sure we have the "fork in the road" analogy quite right.

Conventional wisdom (strange term - rather subjective, wouldn't you say, Newsweek?) says that when I come to a fork in the road (jobs, school, marriage, etc.) and I take the wrong path, well, life is pretty much over. OK, not over, but now I am on the dreaded path of "God's permissive will," and somehow I will just have to make the best of it.

I think Scripture presents a different view of the fork in the road. Should I choose the wrong path, it does indeed change the course of my life. If I have intentionally chosen the wrong path, a path that I knew was wrong, I have complicated my future even more. But is life over, for all practical purposes? Pharisees would say, "Yes - you blew it, now forget about an abundant life!" Jesus would say, "No, it is not over. Go and sin no more!" (See John 8:1-11, and please forgoe any textual questions you may have - the truth of this text is seen repeatedly in the gospels) "Well, what if I marry the wrong person?" When you say, "I do," he or she becomes the right person. "But, what if I was supposed to follow a certain professional track, and I went to the wrong school (i.e., "I took the wrong path at the fork")?

Well, "what if?" If I took the wrong path at the fork, there is often no way I can go back and strike off at the beginning of the other path. In fact, sometimes there is no way to get to the other path in any way. What then? If we believe that God forgives our sins as we confess them (1 John 1:9 and a host of other promises) and that He remains my Shepherd, then we must recongnize that we begin with a clean slate and another fork is set before us. The right path (when it is discernible) may appear to be a difficult path, indeed, but it is God's will for your life and an opportunity for you to live in His will.

What if both paths look equally compelling or equally difficult? This will not help you much, I don't suppose, but in the case when God's will seems extra difficult to discern (which graduate school, which job, which house to buy), we will best see His will in retrospect - looking back. "Thanks for the brilliant insight, pastor - I could have told you that!" Once again, is it possible that we have looked at God's will for our lives as little more than one of the popular "how to" books that fill the shelves at Barnes and Noble and keep Amazon shippers working overtime? "Now, if I will follow steps 1-5 - check Scripture, get godly counsel, look for open and closed doors, listen for a still small voice, etc. - then God has promised to show me which college to choose!" WHO told you that God was obligated to tell you the college you should choose!?!

I think I agree with Augustine - "Love God and do what you want to do." If that sounds appealing to you, make sure you remember the first part - LOVE GOD! That means with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It will reveal itself in loving your neighbor as you love yourself. Piece of cake? No it is not. It demands our entire focus and energy. But, God is far more concerned about who we are than He is with what we do! It is not that events and activities are unimportant, but He wants us to be the people He has designed us to be so that He can use us whereever we are. Sometimes Scripture speaks directly to our circumstances (should I, as a Christian marry an unbeliever - the answer is "no"), but often there is no direct command one way or the other when you find yourself at the fork of the road. Of course, our gifts and talents should move us in one direction or another, but life is not always arranged into the neat little package we seem to so desperately desire.

You may have come to this spot expecting me to talk about my thoughts about my dear wife, Linda. If you are still reading - thank you! I promise that I have not forgotten about the promise to share more of her thoughts about marriage with you, particularly her thoughts directed to young married women - don't worry men, I will put my two cents in so that you may want to read it, also. It is at this point in this post where her memory comes into play about God's will, though.

As I mentioned at the start of the sermon a week ago (and, as you may have read in the last post), I am stunned at the times and ways Linda ministered to people when I was completely unaware! I knew her well, but she continues to surprise me. Linda was just getting to the place where she was overcoming those insecurities (the insecurities that every single one of struggles with) in such a way that she was free to minister far more effectively than ever before. Then, she died. Who can make sense of that? I recently heard about a missionary in Africa that God was using in fantastic ways. He went swimming one day and drowned. He was not killed by some river creature, nor martyred - he just drowned. Would you please explain God's will in that situation? No, don't try. There is just no way to understand.

Well, trying to get back from these deep waters in which we have just been swimming, it often does not seem much easier to try to make sense of God's will when you come to a fork in the road and you have to choose one way or another. Here is my prayer for you: I pray that you will make the right decision, not necessarily the one you feel is the right decision because we often have no idea which path we feel is the one God has laid out for us. In fact, based on all that has been considered to this point, I think that when we have two equal choices before us, it is most often the case that either path is OK - God is most often far more interested in how we walk along the path than He is with a particular path. And, since Jesus said that all the Law and Prophets hang on the two commandments to love God and to love our neighbors, both at the highest level possible, then Augustine's dictum makes sense - "Love God and do what you want to do."

So, is my purpose to free you from guilt, studying Scripture, prayer, and careful planning? OF COURSE NOT! Well, I don't want you to struggle with guilt when you make the best decision you can, but absolutely keep reading, praying, and seeking advice. Ulitmately, I want you to be free from second-guessing yourself all the time. God's will for your life begins today. I really believe that. Should you be at a fork in the road, then seek to learn everything Scripture says about your choices (mostly, this will be from biblical principles, rarely from direct commands), pray for God to guide you, seek godly counsel (but not too much - it may only confuse the issue), and then, forge ahead! Happy traveling!