Figuring Out God's Will for You

You come to a fork in the road you are walking along. There is no sign and the guidebook enigmatically warned of the two men who hang out there that one of the two always tells the truth, the second always lies. Because this is a puzzle, you only get one question to figure out which direction leads to your destination. What question will get you where you want to go?

The answer is that you can ask either of men the following while pointing either direction forward: “If I were to ask you if this is the way I should go, would you say yes?” The truthful man will give the correct answer. The liar will lie about what lie he would tell, which is a convoluted way of saying he would be forced to tell the truth.

But life is not a neat puzzle and we don’t face forks in the road watched over by a liar and a truth-teller. Instead, we face real-life issues of deciding what is the best course of action and there are not usually just two answers. And when there are just two answers it is a real dilemma, which is a question with two wrong answers, ranging from bad to worse, and we don’t know which one is worse. This is not a column about politics, which sometimes seems like a choice of the lesser of two evils or even a choice against the evil of the two lessers.

This is a brief take on the process of discernment, which for Christians is how we try to decide what God’s will is in a given situation. Do I do this or do that? “Which choice is better?” is one kind of question and it is a good one to ask as you weigh the options and consider the choices logically.

I always advise doing this and for important decisions it is good to think through your options with someone you trust. I also know that your intellect is God given and I assume that reasoning helps solve many issues.

But then there are other times when you feel like what you really face is not merely whether to go to Shoney’s or Cracker Barrel after church. It is something which is more important and for life-changing decisions, we really need God’s will rather than our own. So what is God’s will?

In some cases this will be evident by God’s word. If you are considering adultery or murder, God has already been quite clear about those and you are just trying to justify a wrong action with some complicated argument that will not likely even convince yourself, much less anyone else.

When the problem is less clear, such as whether to take one job or another, there are a few time-tested options. First, last and in between, pray. Really hand the decision over to God and ask for God’s will to happen.

One way of praying for this I have found to be powerful is...

The rest of today's Tribune & Georgian religion column is online here: Figuring Out God's Will for you.

kingofpeace.org updated
Also, I want to thank you for your input on the text home page for King of Peace which went back to the drawing board for some additional work. Our new home page debuted earlier this week (www.kingofpeace.org) with changes to take into account the input I received.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor