There is no formula for God

I had the divine pleasure to sit and talk with friends for hours last night talking about life! It was incredible! It’s one reason why I love EMU so much! As we tried to figure out life and our callings and what we ought to do with our education, we kept coming back to this one frustrating truth: There is no formula for God. It’s annoying really. So many Christians live to figure out what God is all about and what His will is for them. They attempt to please Him and spread Jesus’ story to others. That’s all good and well, but it’s not anything simple. You can't learn all about it in class. You can't master a strategy. You can't buy the knowledge of who God is. You can't use a formula for God!

So if I go to church every Sunday morning and some extra church event during the week and read my Bible 15 minutes a day and pray before every meal and don’t sin too much then whenever I need something from God He’ll give it to me. If I need help choosing a career then He’ll tell me. If I need help with a relationship then He’ll help me. If I need to learn some lesson then He’ll teach me. If I need to conquer some fear then He'll strengthen me. If I've done X, Y and Z then when it comes time for God to be God, He will and my life will be perfect. Nope. Never going to happen.

I posed this question: Does God ever make promises He never intends to keep? "Promises" isn't the right word obviously, but I couldn't think of a better way to phrase it at that time. Here's a better way: Does God ever tell you something will happen and then make sure it doesn't happen just to remind you that He is in control? Just when you think you have it figured out, you've been feeling peace and contentment for years on the path you are on and you are so close to making a gigantic difference in the world for God, He pulls out the rug and says: "Stop! I'm in control. So don't think you know the direction I'm leading." Does God do that?

We can get so set on our patterns of life. We can have this one song that always fills our hearts with worship; we can have this one place that fills us with God's presence; we can have this one friend that always shows us Christ at work; and then just to tell us that we haven't figured Him out, God'll pull it all away and remove all its meaning.

It would be so nice if we could say, if you aren't content with life then God wants you some other place. It would be so nice if we could say, if you are at peace then you are exactly who God wants you to be. But then we'd have figured out God. So what if we have no idea where God wants us to go or what God wants us to do or who God wants us to be and we are just asked to walk along blindly? What if we cannot rely on peace for our decisions? What if we are asked to live in discontentment as God tests our faith? What if God never gives us the courage to do that one thing that we should do and expects us to do it anyway? What if God doesn't help us with a decision and expects us just to make it and see Him work through whatever we choose?

No one has figured God out and no one ever will! All we can do is be obedient when His will is clear and always live in faith that He indeed is God.

Free will is funny

Free will is indeed funny. It's really quite unusual and I never really realized that until tonight. I know it's something that I must have been told before or at least realized to some small degree, but tonight it sunk in. As some people say, what had been head knowledge became heart knowledge tonight. So I figured I'd write about it. Why not?

I have no doubt that free will exists. God gave us the ability to make choices in our own lives with lasting consequences--good or bad. Tonight during a discussion on Genesis we talked about Adam and Eve. They obviously made a choice that was outside the will of God. And God didn't stop them; he allowed it to continue and let them live with the result. He told them not to eat of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate--free will.

What's funny about free will is the desired result. I consider free will a gift. Let's say it's a coconut. I have a dozen coconuts and don't really need all of them, so I mail a coconut to someone. They keep the coconut or they realize this is a really random gift that made them smile and would make others smile as well so they send it to someone else. The gift gets passed from person to person, but I don't want my 12th coconut back.

Free will is a gift God has given to us. He could force us to make choices that glorify Himself, but He chooses to give us freedom to make our own decisions. The funny part is that the thing He most desires is for us to give that gift right back to Him. We, as humans in God's image, have the ability to choose whatever we want. Ideally though, God would like us to forfeit that precious choice and do whatever he chooses--whatever glorifies Him. He'll make the choices for us and ask for our obedience and trust as we do as He wills not as we will. We give His gift right back to Him

Romans 8:28 comes to mind. It's a promise God gave us. My paraphrase: We know that God will work everything for good for those that love him and accept their calling. Basically, we can make choices for our own good and do what we can to improve our own lives. Or, we can choose God's purpose for our lives and live according to his choices and trust that he will carry out his promise to bring us good. Essentially, it's rejecting free will and living for God's will; it's being vulnerable and open and weak. That's what God wants us to do with our gift.


My prayer: Father, we come before you on our knees with our arms open. We ask for your will and the ability to live in it. So be it.