If you want to live a happy life, don’t cheer for Minnesota sport’s teams. I grew up in Minnesota, so my athletic heart is genetically compelled to root for any team coming from the Northland. But it’s a lost cause!
I remember when I was young, I prayed before every Twins game. I wanted to see them win so badly! And they did. Because of my prayer, I was sure.
In 2004, Johan Santana surfaced as the best pitcher in baseball, unanimously winning the Cy Young Award. The Twins won the division that year and I was convinced it was their time to take the Pennant. But even with ardent prayers before and after each game, the New York Yankees swept them in the first round of the playoffs and the squad quickly found themselves sitting on the back porch of their coastal condos sipping pina colada’s watching the American League Championship series from two thousand miles away.
My prayers didn’t work. And although I was tempted to consider that God doesn’t care about me, I brushed it off and tried again the next year.
In 2005 the Minnesota Twins had their worst season in four years.
But I still didn’t give up. I think I prayed every day that off season—may have even fasted. Yes, I for sure fasted.
And what do you know, in 2006 the Twins had their best year in fifteen years. Again, Santana unanimously won the Cy Young, claiming the pitcher’s Triple Crown to boot. This was definitely their year to win the Pennant.
Prayers and well-wishes aside, they were again swept in three games. This time by the Oakland Athletics.
My heart was broken. Even though I continued loving the sport, I quit following it closely after that. I couldn’t bear getting my hopes up only to have them dashed again at the last minute.
It’s funny the things we do when we want a specific result, even if what we’re doing doesn’t determine the desired outcome. I sure wish the Twins could have won a World Series in my lifetime, but as I look at the playoff matchups in 2004 and 2006, it’s clear to me their opponents were better, more mature teams. No matter how hard I prayed, I couldn’t suddenly make the Twins as mature as the Yankees. It takes a process for a team to get there, a journey of growth. But I continued praying, convinced that if I prayed enough the Twins would win.
Sometimes we approach finding God’s will this way. We think that if we can just figure out our gifting’s and discover our inner passion we’ll know what our destiny is. Like me and my prayers, we continue seeking to find God’s will for our lives in a way that He never designed it to be found.
Discovering God’s plan for my life is not a formula.
I can’t take a personality test and know exactly what I’m supposed to do. It’s not as simple as looking into myself and finding what I’m passionate about and pursuing that one thing. Neither is it a matter of submitting in just the right way to what God has me doing right now. Submission is not a formula for clarity, either.
Submission. Let’s talk about that for a bit. In the secular world, we hear a lot of the need to discover our passions and hone our skills. In the church world, we hear of the need to submit. Often, the teaching sounds like this: surrender to God and be faithful to what He has you doing right now, and He’ll make the next step clear.
But He doesn’t. God is not a formula. He doesn’t work in neatly packaged concepts. Discovering God’s plan is far more complex than one or two simple steps.
Some people find it easy to know where God is leading them. You know, the people that seem to have life all together. But that’s not everybody’s experience. That doesn’t mean they are any less submitted to God. It doesn’t mean they don’t know their passion or what they’re good at. It just so happens to be the way God is writing their story.
God writing their story.
We don’t like to think someone else is writing our story.
We like to think we are in control of our own destiny. But no matter how hard we try, human experience shows us we cannot determine every event in life. Things happen that we don’t plan for and sometimes hardly recover from.
At the same time, it is true we don’t just sit around and wait for something to happen. At least, not if we want to do anything meaningful in life—such as being and doing what God created us for.
There’s a mysterious paradox at work here. On one hand, God writes my story by arranging life events. On the other hand, discovering God’s will for my life requires intentional action on my part. The fact is, finding God’s will is a journey; not a moment of revelation. I may have epiphanies along the way that feel like I’ve discovered God’s plan for my life, only to realize as time goes on that it was another turn in the route.
Discovering God’s plan, His unique will for you and I, our destiny—whatever you want to call it—is a journey. One just like sports teams take to mature and become championship quality. It’s not as basic as whispering a few prayers and poof! Now we know what to do.
So what can we learn about this journey in discovering God’s will for our lives?
By the very fact that it’s a journey, I’m sure it takes a lifetime to learn. But following are a few thoughts I have about the journey thus far.
#1 – God does not tell me things He already wrote in His word
Sometimes the reason I’m confused about what to do with my life is because I don’t want to do what God has already made clear. I beg God for revelation; He simply wants recognition. I ask for confirmation; He asks for obedience. Finding God’s will really would be less complicated if I started by faithfully doing what He’s already told me to do. I suppose this is where submission and faithfulness comes in.
#2 – God wants to work in my life and then use me to work in other people’s lives
I want to know my ministry right away so I can get busy changing the world. But I have nothing to offer the world until I let God work in me. God is doing a work in my life, right now, even as I do something as menial as a day-job. From that work He will use me in His time to work in others. If I try working in others without letting Him work in me I will burn out, hurt people, and end in further confusion.
#3 – God wants me to get to know Him so well that I begin wanting things for His glory
Jonathan didn’t stop and ask for a fleece before going up against the Philistines (1 Sam. 14:6). He just wanted to do something for the Lord. He wasn’t sure if it would work or not, that didn’t matter. He saw an opportunity to glorify God and he took it. Nehemiah also didn’t spend a lot of time deliberating whether or not he should rebuild the wall. He simply did what was in his heart (Neh. 2:12 & 7:5). The key then is not to worry about what we should do, but to get to know God so well that we intuitively feel what we should do. When we know God in this way (as I think most of us already do), He speaks to us in thoughts, not writings on walls. Only pagan kings need writing on the wall.
#4 – We don’t like waiting
Waiting feels useless. I hate it. I’d rather do something productive. We as humans (and perhaps especially American’s) instinctively resist waiting. But the reality is that sometime God calls us into a season of waiting and it doesn’t mean He’s not communicating or that we’re not on the right track. It’s in waiting seasons that God catching our attention so He can do in us a work necessary for true success in ministry.
#5 – We don’t like serving
We’ll serve, if there’s something in it for us. If the work we’re doing is cool, if it’s a part of a trendy organization or cause, if it makes us feel significant then we’ll serve. But we find it extremely difficult to serve in a truly meaningful, selfless, Christ-like way. And God’s will for our lives usually has to do with that kind of service. There is a reward, but it comes later and our desire for that reward is outrageously weak.
#6 – Finding our strengths is the wrong place to start
Everyone likes doing what they’re good at and what they enjoy. I sure do! But when we cater to our strengths, we develop a selfish mindset; not a loving one. Furthermore, God doesn’t work within our strengths. He works beyond our strengths—in spite of our weaknesses and failures. I believe He gifts us uniquely for a purpose, and that we can have a powerful ministry when working within those gifts. I just believe it’s the wrong place to start. The place to start is by learning how to serve regardless of our gifts. Character and love must be developed before we discover our strengths or God will not be glorified by what we do.
#7 – Enjoying God is more important than doing something for Him
We like to feel significant and that our work is changing the world. That’s not wrong, but the desire to change the world comes from the God-given calling to reconcile the broken to Himself. If man had never sinned, if the world was as it had originally been designed in the Garden, there would be no need for reconciliation. However, we would still be made to glorify God. “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him” (John Piper). Enjoying God regardless of our work is more important than doing something significant for Him.
#8 – We’re afraid of closed doors
We view them as signs of failure. Yet, God uses closed doors as tests and guides. Either, He may test whether we actually want His glory bad enough to kick it down, or He may use it as a guide. He may not necessarily tell us what the next step is, but just wants us to move anyway trusting that if we go in the wrong direction He’ll close a door. Usually it’s our fear of closed doors that freezes us from discovering God’s will for our lives, not the fact that God isn’t communicating.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that God’s will for your life is something that should be simple to discover. It’s a journey, one much like sports teams take to maturity.
God is writing story, one that will amaze you when you look back. So trust Him. And keep walking. As He reveals the next step, or as you discover a burden placed on your heart, pursue it wholeheartedly knowing that God is with you and He takes tremendous pleasure in seeing you obediently following His leading and wanting things for Him.
Enjoy the Father. Bask in His presence. And the hills and gullies of the journey won’t feel as disheartening as when you thought finding His will was something that needed to be done before you were twenty.
