Where There's A Will

Determining the will of God can be a difficult thing.

I still remember being a senior in high school and trying to decide which college to attend. The time grew short, my choices were difficult, and I prayed and prayed that God would show me the right way to go.

I remember going to a Sunday evening service and having my fellow church members pray for me. They laid on hands, prayed earnestly, and truly expected me to receive an answer that very night.

The trouble was, I didn't. The group surrounding me prayed for some time and I became more and more frustrated. Eventually my youth pastor whisked me away, sat me down in his car, and told me that maybe God wasn't going to answer me in that way.

A few days later I simply took the chance and made a decision. And you know what? It turned out to be the right one.

When I think now about God's will, I think about a river. We're sitting there, floating in the water and being carried by its currents. Heading in the direction we are supposed to go.

Sometimes we are in the center of that current and sometimes we get weighed down slogging through the muddy banks, but slowly and surely we're moving where we need to be.

If we try to stop? Well, we can try...but we're still moving with the water. If we try to paddle against the current, we can never truly overcome its force. And if we try to divert our path and take a side stream, we often end up coming back out to the larger river.

Can we destroy our raft? Give up on the river? Well, maybe. But sometimes I'm not even sure that's possible.

In the end, we might not always be able to tell where we're going. But we're still headed there. And you know what? I'm really happy to trust that the current keeps moving me even when I'm not sure where it is.