11 June 2006

God's Will

As I was sitting in Barnes & Noble today writing down what I was gonna say at the end of the Sunday night youth thing and encouraging them to come to youth vbs this week to learn about "Feasting on the Word," I wrote, "When you search for him, he shows you who he created you to be...in his own image." For some reason I thought about how I used to love going to conferences or retreats and going to a "buzz group," or whatever, that talked about finding (or, at least how to find) God's will for my life bc I secretly wanted to know the password to what the heck God's "will for my life" was and what I was supposed to do. I even read books that claimed to have THE answer to all of my queries about what God wants me to do, but nothing seemed to give me that satisfying answer. Every time I came away from one of those buzz groups there were too many holes in the "solution" of finding God's will for my specific life and I really thought it was odd how God's will seemed to always be that I join and be a part of said para-church organization's staff and to go on every retreat they had. If that was so, God needed to quit changing his mind! It was especially confusing when some of the staff would claim that if I wasn't w/ them that I was going against God bc God had told them specifically what his will for my life was. It seemed as though God told them what his will for me was and I must have been talking to some other God if I was feeling any different.

I have come to a tentative conclusion about what God's will is for our life and how we can know it. (pause for anticipation.......ok!) It may seem kind of boring and finitive and lacking depth or guts to go out on a limb and make a bold statement, but I'd have to say it's the exact opposite.

He has one will for all of us and yes it is in the Bible. His will for my life, your life, our lives, is to search for him w/ all our heart. When we do so, we know more of him, whose image we are created from. We begin to see our true selves by seing him and doing what is natural by being our natural, or created self--our desires are his desires and his will becoming ours. God's will for my life, your life, and our lives is not so much of what we should do, but rather who we must be. It has little to do w/ occupation, but so much more w/ your, mine, and our state of heart and mind. "Seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God and all these things shall be given to you!" Amen.

(Comments, questions, rebuttals?)