Living In The Will Of God

I am one of the weirdest people on the face of this earth. Everyone take a quick nod in agreement, "yes". Some people that don't really know me very well see all the crazy things I try and think I'm on my quest to complete some sort of "Bucket List". Well, maybe I am.

A few years back I felt the need to sign up for and complete three complete sailing class modules that took about three years to complete. Then I started on my next item on my list, obtaining my  1st degree "Black Belt" in the martial art of Chun Kuk Do, which consumed another four years to complete. I will never have to worry about being shipwrecked on Gilligan's Island. And I'll be able to handle myself against all my demons and devils that might hitch a ride and follow me there.

Have you ever read the children's book "If  You Give A Moose A Muffin"? Its a really cute story of a little girl who after seeing a moose in her back yard decides to give him one of her mother's freshly baked bran muffins. The moose then follows her into the house because the muffin reminds him of the jam his grandmother use to make. He starts looking in their refrigerator for some jam to put on the muffin. The jam in the fridge reminds him of eating and watching TV so into the living room he goes to turn on the TV. On and on the story winds its tale where the moose finally ends up destroying the entire contents of the house. The moose and the little girl strike up a  friendship and so the moose helps her clean up the mess. Remembering why he was in the little girl's yard in the first place  he heads back out into the wilderness.

Striving to be living in the will of God can kinda be like the moose that destroys the contents of the house before finding what it is he was really looking for. In the course of my ministry I end up rushing here and there, doing this program and that,  always believing that I am on this spiritual quest for God.  As I bumble along in my flesh I unfortunately pass by people who need me. Meanwhile as the church is busy deciding what color of carpet to cover  the floor with they ignore the homeless who are sleeping out in the back parking lot. Or the unfortunate person who has been coming to church alone for weeks but never gets a warm hello, handshake or hug from anyone else. The journey I call life is all about relationships! Relationships are the only thing I will take to heaven with me when I am called home.

Living in the will of God can be allot like going through the four seasons. Where the warm, newness of spring  leads me gracefully into the heat of summer. And as I begin to become exhausted from the extreme heat of summer I am blessed with the coolness the fall season brings, coolness  and a renewing of my circumstances. What I like to call my personal "down time".

Today, As I look outside my living room window, I witness the wind beginning to nudge leaves loose from their perch. Once clinging to little branches which held them so securely to the tree they now  flutter down and down to the damp grass below. Something is different, the new fall season begins  to change aspects of life around me. The air temp is beginning to drop with the leaves. The refreshing coolness begins to color the falling leaves with hues of crimson red, burning orange and bright yellow; colors any master impressionist would embellish.

I love the fall season. It’s a time of change where I can slow down, begin a metamorphosis of life. I begin to slow down, clothe myself in soft flannel, curing up in front of a warm fire to begin a long soothing winter's hibernation. But fall can also remind me of death. Death and dying can be a time where God reminds me and  brings to me a clear focus of how precious life really is. But is death a natural part of life or merely a result of the original sin, God's curse on all the sons of Adam?

Now, in this new season of my life  I find myself preparing for my hibernation of being "put on the used pastor's  shelf", taking some time off, a long deserved rest, down time to regroup and do the next line on my "Bucket List" . So as my eyes move down  my  list of things to do I begin to  ask myself "Is this really the will of God for my life"?

So how do I know  what the will of God is for my life? How did David know to rush out and spit into a giant's face? That God would indeed deliver him and that he would have the ultimate victory standing with the giants bloody head in his hands? Or there is the time when Ruth decided to stay and cleave to Naomi and end up gleaning the corners of Boaz's wheat fields. How did Ruth know where that act of faith would lead and that she was in the exact will of God? Then there is Ester, and how God used her to speak with the King of Persia, who then utterly destroys Haman's evil plan to exterminate the Jews.

Our God is so very good! He is still in control and still on His throne. The heavens flee away from His very presence and He forever continues to hold all things together. All things. As a friend of mine says " All things means all things in the Greek". This means that God holds all aspects of our lives together.

Why then do I so blindly, bumble on through life's twists and turns? As I bump into blank maze walls as I so desperately continue trying to find the opening out into my eternal reward. My entire journey is littered with prayers of  asking God "What is the will for my life" and can I please have this or that?

I believe in these times of introspective rebirth God tries to get my focus back where it belongs-on Him! Sometimes I get too wound up with ministry that I get tunnel vision and pass up on people and relationships along the way. Just as the fall season causes me to slow down, get out of the cold and warm up by the fire these valleys in my life force me to change direction. God, thank you for the seasons of change in my life!
Now its time for me to get a freshly baked bran muffin to eat.