Colossians 1:15-23
The Bible is full of stories about people who discovered God’s dreams for their lives and God’s hope for the world through their witness and service. Remember Moses hiding in far off Sinai because he had killed a man in Egypt. God calls him to go back to Egypt, not only to face his past but to create a new future for the people of God. Remember that young teen, Mary, who willingly accepted the shame and homelessness of that first Christmas in order to give birth to a baby who would “save his people from their sins.”
Do these kinds of stories only happen to special people? How do ordinary people like you and me discover God’s will for our lives? Does God have hopes and dreams for people like me?
After 30 plus years of pastoral experience and a couple of theological degrees, let me answer that question this way: “You betcha!” God has hopes and dreams for all of us. Each of us is that important to God and God’s desire to reconcile the world in peace and harmony through Jesus Christ.
How do we discern God’s will for our lives? What is God’s will?
Part of that answer is in our scripture. Paul writes to the church in Colossae that God’s ultimate purpose is to reconcile the cosmos in Jesus Christ (vs 20). God created all things through Christ (vs 16). Christ is the central nervous network that holds all of reality together – “and in union with him all things have their proper place.” (vs 17). Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice in order to win the opportunity of union with God for each of us. (vs 22).
Leslie Weatherhead was a renowned author and preacher of City Temple, London, in the early parts of the 20th century. He wrote several books, but one of the best known is a little one, barely 59 pages long, simply entitled, The Will of God.
Weatherhead describes three dimensions to the will of God. The first is God’s intentional will. It is God’s intent for all of us to live in peace and harmony. It is God’s intent for all of us to “live long and prosper.”
Weatherhead’s own example is of a doctor in London who had been fighting for his wife’s life. When she died, he commented, “Well, I must just accept it. It is the will of God.”
Weatherhead poses the question: if her death is the will of God, was the doctor working against the will of God when he was doing everything possible to preserve her life? Weatherhead notes that we cannot have it both ways. Either it is God’s will for us to live or for us to die. Which is it?
For Weatherhead it is God’s first intention that all of us live well. It is God’s intention for all of us to live in harmony with each other and all of creation. God’s intention was pictured in the Garden Eden where creation was in perfect harmony and the human species cared for the earth.
How would your life be different if we still lived in the Garden of Eden? (I confess my first thoughts are that I would not likely have a cell phone and I’d save a lot of money on clothes.)
But that is not the real world you and I experience, is it? Something happened a long time ago to set some different forces loose in our experience of reality. The Genesis story tells us about Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. From that time forward, circumstances changed. We live in a fallen world. By that I mean the world is not like God originally intended. There is this thing called sin.
I don’t believe it is a mistake in the sense that God was surprised that Adam and Eve made an independent decision. I believe God knew that was a possibility. In fact, I believe God intentionally allowed that possibility because God valued so highly the privilege of free-will. Did God know the heart ache and tragedy that opening the door to human free-will would bring?
I suspect so. God is not an idiot, but God in unlimited grace and eternal patience said, “I’m willing to go down that road. Human free-will opens the door to human love and devotion.”
So, Weatherhead talks about God’s circumstantial will. Given the circumstances, this is God’s hopes and dreams for us. I prefer to talk about hopes and dreams instead of God’s plan. For many people, God’s plan sounds like something that has been etched in stone as opposed to something designed on an Etch-a-Sketch.
God’s plan – circumstantial will – is not nearly so tight and final. Remember human free-will? We are continually making our own decisions. Sometimes these decisions are not what God first intended. Have we screwed up God’s plan for the rest of the world?
God is bigger than that. God is able to hold the infinite possibilities of human decision within the realm of God’s possibilities.
For example, in John 9 Jesus and his disciples encounter a man born blind. In the culture of Jesus’ day, the disciples assumed that such a tragic circumstance is the direct result of sin. But since the man was born this way, does that mean that he sinned or that his parents sinned?
Jesus points out that they are asking the wrong question. This is an opportunity to see God at work in his life. Translation: life happens. In God’s first intention, none of us would experience tragedy or disappointment or disability or even death.
But since we live in a fallen world, God’s circumstantial will is that we will discover the presence and power of a redemptive God in our broken world. Here is a man born blind. Life happens. But watch what God will do.
Does God heal every occurrence of blindness? That has not been my experience. Does God reveal God’s power and presence in every situation we seek it? After 30 plus years of pastoral experience and two theological degrees, let me answer: “You betcha!”
Because what matters in a temporary, broken, fallen world is not that we somehow recover the good old days of Eden. What matters is that we discover God in our midst. That is why the Bible is full of stories in which the message is: “Fear not. God is with you!”
Can you think of some stories where that is the message? Here are a few:
Genesis 28, Exodus 3, Joshua 1, Judges 6, 1 Samuel 17, Jeremiah 1, Luke 1. Who are some of the characters who discovered God in the midst of unusual circumstances?
I believe that in every moment of existence there are multiple possibilities of choices available to us. It is a rainbow spectrum of options. Because many of us have made significant choices of priorities and promises, we establish a momentum through those spectrums of possibilities. Many mornings I make a choice to go to work. Because I have established a habit of doing so, I do so now without giving it much thought. It is a habit. It is a direction of momentum through those spectrums of decision.
Sometimes I am confronted with different circumstances and I have to contemplate additional options. I am feeling sick, or my wife is sick. These new options change the range of possibilities I might consider.
I believe that in every spectrum of circumstances, God is in several of the options. God is in several options, because God’s circumstantial will is not so fragile and rigid that one mistake will shatter the whole framework of reality.
God is hovering in those spectrums of possibility inviting us to choose life, choose hope, choose harmony, and choose shalom. If we take the time to prayerfully consider our options, we will see God’s invitation every time.
God wants to reveal God’s options to us. They will become evident to us at the right time. Someone once said, “God is rarely early, but never late.” Usually, I realize that God is waiting on me. God has to wait for me to be in the right place at the right time with the right attitude. And often, it is my attitude that prevents me from seeing God’s possibilities in those circumstances.
Most of us spend our lives in seeking God’s circumstantial will. What are the circumstances in which you find yourself? Does God have hopes and dreams for you? “You betcha!” In the spectrums of possibilities facing you, where do you see God beckoning to you, “Come this way, my child. Follow me, my child. Take my hand, my child.”
Weatherhead’s third dimension is God’s ultimate will. Ultimately, God will accomplish what Paul promised in our scripture. Ultimately, God will bring reconciliation to the cosmos in Jesus Christ. God waits because God is gracious. In grace, God continually gives us more opportunities to choose God’s options in the circumstances of our lives.
But ultimately, it will all come together despite what we choose. That does not make our human decisions meaningless. Our decisions have eternal consequences for us, but we cannot derail God’s ultimate plan.
For example, Cathy and I load our four grandchildren into the van for a trip to the Beach Waterpark across the interstate from King’s Island. My ultimate goal? It is to have fun and build some wonderful memories with our grandchildren. Since they live in another state, whenever we are together I want to get to know them and help them to know us. I want them to know they are loved beyond imagination. And I want them to know how important they are to us, just as they are.
On the way to the Beach Waterpark, all kinds of circumstances may change our plans. There may be construction on I-75. (There is always construction on I-75.) There may be traffic that will change our planned route. (We will give the gps unit another headache.) We may get to the Beach Waterpark to discover a thunderstorm is coming in and the park is closed. We may have car failure and have to call a tow truck. We may end up spending most of our time eating ice cream at the Dairy Queen.
There are all kinds of possibilities that may change our plans – our intentional will. We will navigate those options and choose what seems best in the midst of those possibilities – our circumstantial will. But we will accomplish my ultimate goal. We will have fun together. We will love these four kids and express unlimited grace and favor without hesitation – as only grandparents can do.
How do we discover God’s will for us? We begin with God’s intentional will – Genesis 1 & 2. We end with God’s ultimate will – Colossians 1 and Revelation 21 & 22. We anchor our boats on those two foundations. In between we navigate the whitewater rivers of changing circumstances using spiritual disciplines such as Bible study, prayer, Christian conferencing – meeting with others who are also seeking God’s hopes and dreams, and intuitively walking by faith.
And one more confirmation of God’s will, but please understand this. In the Myers-Briggs personality profile I am a thinker, not a feeler. I am learning over time to trust my intuition, but I’d rather see the research report first. But I believe God will confirm our attempts of seeking God’s will. Some of this comes with a mysterious and wonderful gift of peace in the midst of circumstantial shipwrecks. Have you experience that? Everything else is topsy-turvy, but you sense something that suggests it will all work out. That is God’s gift to you when you are following God’s will.
Read Isaiah 55:6-9. Yes, God’s will is often mysterious to us, but God is eager to reveal God’s thoughts and hopes and dreams to the one who turns to the Lord. My prayer is that you will discover God’s hopes and dreams for your life with new clarity today.
