Soul Construction

"It was God's will."
Those words have always been difficult for me. The issue of knowing God's will has been pondered by many people for a long time. Many want to know exactly what God has planned for them. They want to be sure that they make the "right" decisions.

I remember as I was growing up, several occasions in which our family made life changing moves because my father thought that it was God's will that he take a certain job that had come up. I've heard stories of people who woke up one morning and canceled their travel plans, to later find out that the plane or car or train they were scheduled to be on, crashed. They believed that they were spared because it was God's will. I would wonder about all those other people who still kept their travel plans and died that day! What about them?

We've all heard of someone telling a grieving mother, "It was God's will. Your child is safe in the arms of Jesus now." In my own church, I remember conversations that centered around the death of someone and invariably it would be announced that "God knew to take that person now, because if they had lived longer, maybe they would have strayed from the truth and not been saved."

In the Psalms, King David talks about God directing or illuminating our paths. Many of us have read these texts and thought, "Aha.... this must mean that God has a specific plan for me and it is up to me to find out what that plan is."

I would like to suggest another thought. God's government is set up so that all of us have freedom of choice. This means that we humans make choices that have exponential ramifications for all of us. Imagine the surface of a still pond. Throw a pebble into it and watch the rings move out from the point of impact. Then think of a handful of pebbles being thrown into it. The result is a wide area of intersecting paths and options of travel.

Throughout our lives, we cross many such paths. These paths have not all been designed by God. He didn't throw the pebbles, we did. What I am saying is that I don't believe God constructs the road that goes before us. But He DOES walk the road we choose right alongside of us. The miracle of God working in our lives is that He guides us and helps us traverse the many crisscrossing paths that we come to.

The important factor is one that is very intrinsic, rather than external. God is not outside of us working construction or directing us with signs along the way. He lives IN us..... and if we really listen, we will know that He is there to guide us through the mazes of our life.

This is not to say that God cannot put up detours, build bridges or fill in potholes. He IS GOD after all. However, when the Bible talks about God completing a good work within us, that is exactly what it is - IN us! He does soul construction, not road construction.

Was lost, but now am found!

It is interesting that I've put this blog out of my mind for almost 2 years! I didn't even know how to get to it until this morning when a friend mentioned that she had visited it just recently. I'm not even sure why I'm back....but I do know that I've been longing to find my voice again. Perhaps it is enough to express myself to cyberspace, but that brings up the question: Do I still have a voice - even if no one is listening??? (Reminds me of the Teeshirt that I saw a man wearing which said something like: "If my wife speaks in the middle of the forest and I'm not there to hear her, is she still right?") I've probably twisted the words around, but the point is the same. What gives a person a "voice"? Is it merely getting the thoughts out of the head? Or do those thoughts remain voiceless until someone "hears" them? AND do those thoughts need to be understood by someone in order for them to constitute being a "voice"?