Gods, Not Gods, and the Future

Well, that last one didn't even get a response from my wife, so it must have been really... awesome.

It was too long to make one post, and now I've lost the "inspiration" as it were, to finish the thought adequately.

In short, the direction I was going was the idea that it is within the realm of possibility that God cares more about us conforming to His character than he does about us conforming to some self-appointed concept of a Plan. Maybe God's will is that in all things we choose to do, we do it in such a way as to honor and glorify his NATURE. This as a distinction from God's will as figuring out exactly what God has "planned" regarding the course and events of your life, future, etc.

So, for example, (and this will be a tough one to admit considering the type of love glorified in our culture and considering the way we have "spiritualized" that concept) maybe what God's will for you in regards to a spouse is to find a person who will support and encourage you as a Christian. Maybe those searching for a spouse should spend less time searching for "The One" that God has prepared from them from the beginning of time and more time searching for someone to whom they are attracted spiritually, physically, etc. Sure, it sounds less romantic, and sure, Jesse and I tend to feel "The One"-ish about each other, but what about widowers who remarry? Did God's Plan including them being built specially to love more than one "The One"? Yes, it flies in the face of our lofty romanticism and every great romantic move you've ever seen, but what if God didn't pick a "The One" for you. What if He blesses the choice of a spouse that you make as long as the relationship you have with that one person conforms to God's nature and character and design for Godly marriage? That's pretty provocative, but not entirely insane. Just don't bring it up with your spouse...

Let's try a less disturbing, more comfortable, example: the place where you live. Is it God's will for you to live where you do, with the job that you have, with the church body of which you are a part? Or, is it just as likely that God honors wherever you choose to work (within reason [ie, not a strip club]), live, or worship, as long as it conforms to His nature and character? It's possible, right?

We don't like to think this way because it makes everything feel so much less comfortable and controlled. I'm going to stop typing special words in caps - you can decide which ones are the most important. If God doesn't have this Plan worked out then how do we know what to do next? We've created this idea of a Divine Plan to help us feel safer about the future. It's much more comforting to feel like there is a right thing to do in every situation but that we just have to figure it out. It's can be much more frightening to think that there may not be a "one right choice" in certain circumstances.

At the same time, it might be more liberating. You have a choice. And not in the radical individualist sense, but more in the sense relationship. You and God interact. He honors your choices; He works with them. He might try and convince you to make a different choice, or He might provide guidance to help you choose something that is better than another thing. And, ironically, it might make determining God's will easier. Plan-centric language goes out, but relational language takes its place.

See again the Israelites. Why did they "Exodite" Egypt only to fall so soon at the foot of God's mountain? I would say that it might be because they wanted a Plan, and only got a relationship. I would say that it might be because they cared more about knowing came next, rather knowing who would go forward with them. They were looking towards Canaan, when they should have been looking to the top of the mountain right in front of them. If God has a plan for us, it probably looks a lot different from what we normally expect. It probably doesn't have a picture of you and your spouse, your job, your house, you children, your paycheck, your cars, your church, etc. It probably just looks like Him.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 "It is God's will that you should be sanctified..."