A couple of weeks ago I read through both Crazy Love and Forgotten God by Francis Chan. Both of these books were deeply convicting and resulted in me attempting to adopt a new mindset and to desire to love God more. I found these books to be so convicting, but also so helpful, that I’ve decided to host a bible study based on one or both books. Out of the two of these books, one chapter in particular stuck out at me a bit more than most: Chapter 6 in Forgotten God titled “Forget about His will for your life!”
In a book centered on modern [Western] Christianity’s “tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit” and His leading, it seems somewhat out of place that the author would urge his readers to “Forget about His will for your life”. But what he has to say makes a lot of sense. Francis Chan makes the point that very rarely in the bible does God present anyone with a roadmap to their life. The individuals in the bible are largely told “Go” and they either do or they don’t. God is concerned about what we do in these times. Abraham didn’t know where he was going to wind up when God instructed him to pick up and move, and it certainly doesn’t seem reasonable that we should expect anymore from God than what He provided to Abraham, or Joseph, or David.
Chan also makes a point that he “believe[s] part of the desire to ‘know God’s will for my life’ is birthed in fear and results in paralysis. We are scared to make mistakes, so we fret over figuring out God’s will. We wonder what living according to His will would actually look and feel like, and we are scared to find out”. I certainly have seen the effects of this in my own life. I’ve been paralyzed in fear of making the wrong choice in location, occupation, etc. for so long because I haven’t felt any particular leading in any particular direction. I’ve almost felt as if I was being lead one way one day and in a completely different direction the next. Chan even makes the point that using the phrase “God’s will for my life” is “an excuse for inaction or even disobedience”. What is far more important to God is what we are doing right now.
We are not going to go wrong if we listen to what the Spirit is telling us to do right now. And despite my desire to listen much more closely I know that it is not easy. In fact, I have a confession to make. I’m fairly certain that I ignored his leading just as recently as this morning. I stopped at Speedway on the way into work to pick up a pop and a snack. There was a woman there who seemed to have a coolant leak or an overheating engine and she was struggling to find something to add water to her radiator. I thought about buying her a jug of antifreeze, but I was already heading out the door and I really needed to go drop some thing in the mail and get to work. Well, at least that’s what I told myself as I tried to justify not dropping the couple of bucks and spending that extra two minutes at the register to pay for some coolant. Was this a big deal? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll never know what God would have used that act for had I decided to do what I genuinely feel I was being led to do, and for that I’m sorry.
Francis Chan’s point is not that God doesn’t have purposes or plans for your life, but rather, that we should not be so concerned with the long term plan that He has never promised to give us that we neglect the Spirit’s leading in the “small” things here and now. While I’m still struggling at finding something that I want to do with my life I’m starting to pay more attention to the “little” things that the Spirit is leading me to do now.
This is one of those times when the concept for the note was better in my head than I seem to have been able to translate into text. But I guess the gist is that I would encourage you to begin paying more attention to those things you are being led to do by the Spirit in your day to day life than attempt to discern where the Spirit is leading you 20 years from now. Additionally, I would recommend you read those two books that I mentioned in my introduction. There’s a lot of good stuff in them. And don’t expect to be happy about how you’re living right now when you’re done.
