Following God’s Will…Anywhere?

Cathy and I knew God was calling us into full-time ministry, me as a pastor and she as a pastor’s wife. God made that fact hard to miss. Yet to follow God’s leading we would have to leave everything behind in Baltimore and start a new life. I would have to leave my career and she would have to leave the house we were about to buy and leave becoming a stay-at-home mom in a comfortable life.

As you know I have been a pastor and Cathy a pastor’s wife for over 20 years. Therefore you know we accepted God’s will. I want you to know, however, it was not an easy thing. We gave up everything, moved to Philadelphia, and rented a run-down apartment across the street from a bar. I started attending seminary during the day where I studied to become a pastor. At night I worked as a security guard for minimum wage. Cathy started teaching while pregnant in a Christian School.

We had so little money we brought a baseball clicker to grocery shop and added up every penny of everything we put in the cart, minus coupons of course. We had one date a month and lined our trashcan with free bags from the supermarket because we could not afford plastic bags.

Our first child was born in that run-down apartment. After she was born my typical schedule went something like this: Wake up at 6. Drive Cathy to her job by 7. Take our daughter to a babysitter and go to class. After class, pick up our daughter and come home. Pick Cathy up at school around 3:30. Get home around 4 and leave to work as a security guard until about 1 in the morning. The next morning we would rinse and repeat the process.

When we lived in Baltimore, we had three cars for just two people. In preparation for attending seminary, we sold all three and bought a very inexpensive used Ford Escort. It was so inexpensive it did not come with a radio, antenna, or air conditioning. In fact where the radio was supposed to be was only a hole in the dashboard. Sometimes I miss that car.

On the surface, accepting God’s will sounds easy. We may think, “Of course I’m committed to accepting God’s will for my life.” This might be true. In fact, I think most followers of Jesus believe that they do accept God’s will. However, I also believe that most followers of Jesus place conditions upon God’s will for their lives. These conditions tend to limit our ability to experience the spiritual growth we desire.

There are many followers of Jesus walking around who will assure us that if we pray hard, have faith, go to church, and generally seek to live the good Christian life, that God will give us the things we desire. These often include more resources, less pain, less stress, better relationships, the spouse we always wanted, the kids we always wanted, the grandkids we always wanted, and so on. Are any of these desires on your list? Of course they are, because we all want them. They are on my list too.

The problem is that for many, seeking to achieve greater faith, praying more often, and generally trying to live the Christian life has become no more than a spiritually veneered way to get what we desire in this life from God as opposed to giving him what He desires. Oh, we want to give God what He desires, but only as a means to get what we desire.

This picture of giving and taking is wrapped up in a nice little bow under the thin veneer of a loving God. The underlying philosophy is that God is a loving God, therefore, doesn’t God want to give us the good things that we desire? We can even quote some nice Bible verses that we interpret to mean God will give us whatever we want if we pray enough, have enough faith, etc.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it does not account for God’s will. Rather, it accounts for our will in this life and then seeks to conform God’s will to our will. We are asking for what we want, not what God wants. We are ultimately placing conditions upon God’s will.

Perhaps it’s even worse. Do we believe when we learn to operate appropriately in the Christian life, by demonstrating the right amount of faith and obedience, that we can claim all the promises of God for a prosperous, healthy, trouble-free life?

It is worse because now we make God obligated to bless us the way we want to be blessed as a result of his promises. We twist and manipulate the promises of God to be no more than a tool to obtain the things we desire from Him. Then, when we don’t feel that God has lived up to his side of the bargain, when he allows suffering into our lives, we cry foul! We might even say: “God, don’t you love me anymore?” In all sincerity, we wonder why God has not held up his end of the deal that we imposed on him – the one that he never intended to make.

So what is the solution? It is simple really. Accept God’s will for your life unconditionally. But that means whatever situation you find yourself in, you must accept it as God’s will for you.

This is difficult…but I will tell you that it leads to enormous spiritual growth. Unconditional submission to God’s will equals spiritual growth…always.