God's Will

It was on the Christian radio show I was listening too. Another person had called in and said he was "trying to figure out God's will for my life." Honestly, I wanted to scream. I hear this all the time from Christians. I wonder why they don't look in The Book. All the answers are in there.

I have a son who is known by those who love him for eschewing directions. The boy never reads anything. Every new gadget or toy is quickly assembled, while the explicit instructions are left lying in the box. They're never read and usually get tossed. On occasion, when he has botched the assembly so bad that the gadget or toy is unsalvageable, he will resort to reading the directions.

I think this is a metaphor for how lots of people view the Christian life. They will go on about their business, ignoring God's Word (which is an instruction manual for life). It is only when life is spinning out of control, or they've made an absolute mess of things that they will consider asking the manufacturer of their life how to do it.

What is it about human nature that makes us want to spurn instructions and just figure things out on our own? Is it the thrill of flying by the seat of your pants? Do we really like failure - or do we just believe that failure is never that imminent? I don't know about you, but I've seen some pretty messy lives. And they've never been messy because someone followed instructions (that God gives in the Bible).

You see, if we'll take the time to read it, God's Word is chock full of instructions. He has made His will for us very clear and very specific. It starts with loving God with all your heart, soul and mind. It continues with serving God with all your gifts and abilities. Then it moves to loving others as you would want to be loved yourself. And it continues from there. In fact, if I were to make a list, I'm pretty confident I could list hundreds upon hundreds of specific steps God has given each of us.

Folks, it doesn't get any more specific than that. And it's printed in most languages of the world. It's offered in a variety of translations to make it easy to understand too. You can even get it on tape. You can read a little bit at a time, or a whole lot at once. But for a Christian to walk around saying that he or she is "just trying to figure out God's will for my life" is just crazy. So stop it.

I suspect that what we're really saying is that I'm trying to find a way to make my will for my life look like God's will for my life. Or what we may be saying is that I don't want to know God's will for my life - His will is too complicated and I don't want to be bothered with that. Perhaps we're saying that God's will for my life isn't good enough and doesn't meet our expectations.

Whatever it is, I suspect that running around "trying to figure out God's will for my life" is closer to sin than most of us would imagine!