God’s Will: Know It

Last updated on: November 1, 2017 at 2:00 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

God’s Will: Know It 2017-11-01T14:00:58-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Americans: we have many good traits, but like any nation some odd ones. We made The Greatest Show on Earth the best picture over Singin’ In the Rain. American Christians gained the odd notion that they needed to spend time discerning God’s will for every particular decision from whether to floss our teeth (generally “yes”) to whether to answer an email about the Irish letter (“no”).

Imagine working hard to construct a school room for your kids full of wonderful things to do and discover. The marvels in the room are revealed by some effort, yet also by the messing about with things kids do naturally. The room, like any good classroom, is open ended. The only instruction is: “as you wish.”

What if the child turned to you and said: “What do you want me to do?”

“Do as you wish! Muck about and have fun. Learn.”

“But what do you want me to do? Will any of this be on a test? What is the best thing to do?”

”I want you to do as you please. There are no tests. The best thing is the thing you decide to do.”

“Great. I will do that if you start by telling me what to do.”

God gives us liberty, a cosmos to explore, and we wish to know what exactly God wishes us to wear today: the blue suit, the grey suit, or the giraffe hat. Wear what you will or at least what your boss will tolerate. God is often more tolerant than Human Resources!

God does clarify that in an enormous cosmos that there a few things that are not good for us that in our soul’s youth we might wish to do. With infinite combinations and infinite possiblities of good things to do, pruning out sets of bad things should leave us in good shape. Saint Augustine summed up our liberty: “Love God, do as you will.”

This frustrates our broken selves. We veer between resenting the few instructions (“don’t kill”) to asking for a minute by minute syllabus. It is the minute by minute syllabus that some American Christians obsess over. A few even think that is sort of breath by breath set of instructions is needed to show God is on the job.

Nonsense. God sustains creation, directs history toward ultimate ends, and loves each one of us as a good parent and the very best of teachers. Good teachers do not control, but direct education. God’s self-created job is not to contradict His purposes in creation free beings by sending diktats. Maybe we hope to become some sort of Mutant Christians who gain special powers by doing God’s secret will for our lives or we think life is a choose your own adventure phone game where if you pick “date Harry” you get the most points.

We are not collecting points in life: it is a pass-fail course. Christians do not have super-secret-insiders. Having said all of that, there are also Easter Eggs, hidden surprises in the cosmos God has made, and I have felt our Good God nudge me in those directions. “Look over there, if you want,” God says every so often.

This is rare, but marvelous.

Assume you should not watch The Greatest Show on Earth if you have not yet seen Singin’ in the Rain. Choose wisely. Love God and do as you will.

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