The Will of God

“I am certain,” the Apostle Paul once wrote, “that God, who began the good work within you, will continue that work until it is finally finished.” That God would finish what God started doesn’t appear to be breaking news. The real question for most of us is this: “What exactly is God trying to finish in my life?” Or put another way, “What is God’s will for my life?”

Speaking as one who was saturated in the dogmatic language and cliches of Christianity, I learned quite early to be cautious about that phrase, “the will of God.” It was a mantra with mystical implications, inferring that if I could discover, uncover, or recover this elusive, singular, “will of God,” then my life would have a divine purpose. 

When, inevitably, “the will of God” remained ambiguous – which it always seemed to do – I was made to feel a failure…