Onward! So, this idea of God's will has been on my mind, and for any one who has even remotely attempting to follow the Teaching's and Lifestyle of Christ then this question has crossed your mind. "What is God's Will for me?"
So, we start looking at Pastors and Teachers, Missionaries and Prayer Warriors, Healers and Servers, and we feel more inadequacy then we can handle. And we decide to just coast along waiting for God to tell us what our big mission is going to be for him! Apparently the Christian church is saturated with a Hero concept. Big earthly mission, big heavenly reward, maybe a little bit of press cause "unto all the world", right? And we listen to the big names in press, the big names in our churches, the visiting missionaries, and popular out of town visiting pastors! They have these incredible stories of how God called them to what they're doing now, and our hearts soar with excitement and we say "I can't wait until God does something like that in my life!"
And as time passes, the pastors leave, and missionaries return to their fields, you wait... and nothing happens. You get frustrated at work, your family seems to be a big distraction, "Can't they understand I'm waiting for God to call me to something big!", children grow up, friends move on or pass away, and you're still wondering why God hasn't called you to some big mission. Headquarters must have lost the invoice, the message was "lost in translation". And so you serve your heart out at your home church, and you settle into a life that is not as glamorous as you wanted. But something tugs at your heart, those kids in your neighborhood, the older widow whose alone, that friend you always meant to catch up with, and you go before God and say "I know I've probably missed out on the big mission, I'm to old and tied down now, life's gone by to fast, but... can you show me how to serve those around me? I can at least do that."
This is where something amazing happens, those people day to day, begin to notice that you care about them, that you care about who they are, what they like, and little by little you see them. They're hurting, or lonely, or even joyous and unpredictably fun to be around, they want to laugh, they need to cry, and one day there comes a moment that is the most glorious thing you can experience. Your friend, that you love, and have prayed for endlessly, whose debated with your over scripture and God, who you've gone on vacation with, and whose kids call you "uncle" or "aunt", he comes to you with such a light and joy in his eyes as he says, " I get it! I understand! I'm free, my friend, Christ has freed me just as you are!" and you, you who wanted to be apart of something big, get to see something huge and can rejoice personally in it.
Obviously this is a fictional concept, but it's happened to people. It truly hit me a while back when our CityGroup had a visitor, a friend who lived in Israel, and when we asked her What mission did he give her, what calling was pressed on her life...she responded in confusion. Her answer was simple, she just lived her life and shared Jesus as much as she could. No big calling, no giant mission, just living life. As I've studied the bible growing up, I don't see many if any mentions of people getting calls from God because they've ignored their lives and are just waiting. I do see him calling the faithful, the wondering, the lost, the busy, the frustrated, the limited, and the weak.
"Why the picture of the book?"
Because... I'm going through this book with my friend, and we're living life and experiencing the growing pains of following Christ together. We were talking today and noticing how each chapter we've gone through has correlated with events within our Church, our lives, and our friendship. We're not reading this on a schedule, we're reading it as we remember and have time, but what we've read has been perfectly timed. To us, that's an example of God's will in action. That the tools we need are appearing as we need them, the conversations, tugs on our spirits, and knee jerk reactions of "I just wanted to check in", are perfectly timed and designed by God for us to grow closer to him. We've been faithful, we've been wondering, lost, busy, frustrated, limited, and weak. The calling is
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 ESV
That is a blanket command... There is God's will for me.
Wow, do I struggle with that. But, I do not despair, I have before, it's not fun, but there is grace, mercy, and strength, for the fallen, frustrated, and weak.
I hope this is encouraging to you.
Good word bro!- Nick
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