Some thoughts on "Knowing God's Will"

On my twentieth birthday, I asked myself: “If this was the last year of my life (I just turned 20), would I change anything?”

I said “no”. I had a really cool opportunity to do God’s work on Carleton as a student. If I died that year, I would have died knowing I lived 2006 for God’s Glory.

But now I’m older and need to answer another question – am I willing to close doors for God?

The other day I heard Pastor Mark Dever say that
“I think the young folks in our culture who are doing okay by the world’s standards are enslaved almost always to worshipping at the altar of the god of options” (it was an interview, if it was written I think it would sound smarter haha)

What he means is they can’t commit. They’re scared to death of limiting their options!

My Christian friends talk a lot about how to discern God’s will. Unfortunately, I think that usually means that they’re convinced God’s got a plan and we can find it…. If we figure out the code.

You hear different ideas: Do you flip your book to somewhere in the Bible (unless you are willing to intentionally flip to the front or the back, you’ll probably hit psalms*) Do you look for signs? Do you write down long “benefits and barriers” lists? Do you distill your life goals into a purpose statement – one or two sentences by which we can successfully filter through life’s choices? I think a lot of Christians (the ones I hang out with at least) get pretty obsessed with thinking about it.

I’ve realized that a big root of this problem is what Dever calls the “god of options”. Most people in the world don’t have the privileges we have in North America: we have the money to fly to the other side of the world and return in little over a day, we have access to education that usually enables us to be in high demand in most countries (even for arts degree holders like me), we don’t have to worry about money, we don’t have to worry about family as much, and our society in general puts a high value on opportunity and actively provides us with them.

But what was intended to be a blessing has been used by Satan as a curse. We’re so afraid to make decisions because we’re worried that doors might be closed. We’re terrified of settling down. We’re not so much afraid of making the wrong decision as making any kind of long-term decision at all.

A lot of questions (what school?, what Church?, what girl/boy?, what job?, what country?) need long-term answers. An education, a ministry, a relationship: these are all processes; they require time.

Jesus says “go, give up all your options, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”. Yet we leave sorrowful, for we are people with many options.

*A friend of mine made this observation