Life in the Hallway: Thoughts on Discernment, Direction, and the "Will of God"
Once about seven years ago, I stumbled across a slim paperback entitled something along the lines of Can I Know the Will of God?...
It's a topic you either hear about every Sunday or not at all when you "grow up in church".
Those who don't talk about it are perhaps a bit intimidated at the idea of making any claims as to what the will of God is.....
Those who talk about it all the time tend to speak of it as a rather abstract principle - something only the Creator knows about, which somehow we must stumble along in pursuit of with little knowledge of just what it is we're looking for.
I'm sure you can look back on your life (or what you've lived of it, so far) and take note of things or opportunities which arose that were doubtless brought about only by the work of God. A new job popping up out of nowhere, a physical healing, the chance to finally pursue the dream that had been on your heart for years...
A couple years ago, I found myself with such an opportunity in a leadership role. I knew that the choice placed in front of me was something He had made possible entirely by Himself. So I decided to step into this new adventure with as much courage as I could muster.
It's a tricky business, venturing into the unknown. How are we supposed to navigate this bewildering passage of Life? How do we discern which way is the right way? What is the best or right decision when the atmosphere is grey with clouded perception?
Our understanding is quite limited, after all. Far too often we see exactly what we want to see, listen only to that which agrees most with our present feelings, and seek after what we think we need - nothing more.
So when the door then closes (as it did for me, and I'm sure it probably does for you sometimes), it's too easy to assume we didn't hear God correctly.
"Did I miss something?"...... you'll ask yourself again and again.
Did I not understand what God was doing and where He was guiding me? Did I ruin His plan? Did I make a mistake in embracing a new direction?
Sometimes the answer is yes - maybe there was a miscommunication, a lapse of judgement, an agenda pushed that should've waited. But I do believe those situations usually make themselves abundantly clear if we are open to receiving His discipline.
But what about when the things we've labored for fall apart without explanation? When we've given everything we could only to face the end of the chapter?
Have we missed God's will? I don't believe so.
Sometimes God's will is presented to us by teachers as the perfect blueprint. Something that's just going to pop up in our inbox tomorrow morning and tell us exactly what God wants from us, where to do it and how to accomplish it. (Goodness, how much decision fatigue would that relieve!?) But that is not the case.
When we direct our attention, our hope and our wonderings to His recorded words - we hardly find a black and white, fully detailed strategy for our day-to-day where you find the words "the will of God".
What you do find are His encouragements and challenges spoken through Peter and Paul. Words that call us to do what is good, and so "put to silence the ignorance of foolish people" and use our freedom not as a concealment for evil, but in service of God (1 Peter 2:15-16). They charge us to give thanks, to truly recognize each grace given to us, even when our hearts are not at peace (1 Thess. 5:18).
Their words ask us to seek after transformation of our minds and hearts so that we can better understand what God asks of us (Romans 12:2). The will of God is our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3), that which empowers us to "no longer [live] for human passions," (1 Peter 4:1-2).
"I would not have told you to seek Me if I could not be found." God's words to the Israelites through Isaiah are spoken to us as well.
God is not in the business of purposely trying to confuse us. That is what the devil does.
Sometimes we follow in faith, and the current plan (as we see it) fails. That doesn't mean His plan is ruined. It doesn't mean the situation is irredeemable or that we have prevented God from doing what He wants to do in and through us.
When the door closes and the plan fails, we can still do good. We can identify grace and be its hands and feet in the world. We can still seek to be renewed and to be a means through which transformation is brought into the world. Is this not the will of God itself?
We may be "stuck in a hallway", waiting for the next door to open - and it is brave to wait. We mustn't let our fear of good things coming to an end cause us to be too terrified to ever cross through a threshold again.
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