The Ultimate Adventure

Sorry to disappoint you, but this blog is not what you think it is about...I haven't done something incredibly awesome that you're going to be sooo jealous of. In a way, I wish it was...maybe next week.

Honestly, this blog is about faith; specifically in God's will. I think one of the greatest misnomers in Christianity today is the propagation of the erroneous idea, "finding God's will for one's life." In case I've lost some of you already, "propagation" means "the spreading or advertising of something," and "erroneous" means "flawed, faulty, false." So we're talking about the spreading around of a false idea....good, now we're all on the same page.

It's really common for Christian people my age and younger to be wondering or concerned about finding the will of God for their lives. I think that this idea may be shaping our thinking in the wrong direction...I know it has for me. Do you realize that God's will is not up to you to find? It isn't! Before you start calling me heretical, let me explain my logic on this. I think a lot of us think of God's will as some buried treasure that we're all desperately searching for. We're using our college, our classes, our parent's opinion, and our natural talents as a sort of "treasure map" to lead us in the right direction. We are just hoping that one random day we will wake up and, "WOW....there it is! I've 'found' God's will!" Then we proceed to change ourselves in order to measure up to this manufactured idea of God's "perfect" will--another misnomer, but I'll save that for another day. This "treasure chest" idea is how I grew up thinking of God's will. Guess what? Doesn't work that way...bummer...maybe you've had it all wrong as I have in the past. But there's hope.

As I said in the previous paragraph, God's will is not up for you to find! Maybe this is a shocker to you, but just think about how that way of thinking paints God. If He knows (and He does) exactly what He would have us to be/do in life, why would he hide that from us? Why would He make it some elusive thing we spend half of our lives trying to "dig up?" That paints God as some tricky, elusive, secretive, crooked pirate! News flash: God's will is not something you have to worry about! Sometimes we just get overwhelmed by trying to figure out what we're supposed to do in life, but we don't need to. Do you think God is up there in Heaven nervously biting His nails thinking, "Oh no...I just don't know what I want Jim to do with his life...Oh, I'm so confused and overwhelmed right now! Oh dear, what was it I had him doing?" NO! He knows exactly, perfectly what He has in store for you. In fact, God's will is about 99% His responsibility!

Now that we've got that down, what's that 1% part that is up to us? Are you ready......? Faith. That's it. No worrying, no searching, no hidden treasures. Don't you feel relieved? I do. What we're commanded in Scripture to do is to first and foremost love God, then trust Him, then ask Him daily for wisdom to make right choices...the rest is up to Him. One of the most simple yet profound statements I've heard on the will of God was from Dr. Bill Rice. He said, "Do you want to know God's will for you life....brush your teeth." That was it. In other words, just do today what you know is right, because God knows we can't handle much else.

Do you want in on the adventure of a lifetime, an adventure wilder that your dreams could possibly imagine? Try faith. And by the way, it is an adventure of a lifetime because God's will is not a one time answer. It is a life-long process to be conformed to the image of His Son; it's a journey all about faith.