Some Advice for Feeling Better about God's Will for Your Life

When you're pretty sure you're doing it wrong

Kill this animal. Smear its blood on your doorpost.

Pack your things.

We leave in the morning.

That’s the sort of clear direction I’d like for my life, the kind God gave the Israelites in Exodus 12.

Is it terrifying? Sure.

Is it traumatizing? Probably.

But it’s clear. And in times like this when ain’t nothing clear, I crave some sort of unambiguous direction, some clear calling from God.

I rarely get it.

More than 20 years ago, I felt a clear sense of calling into vocational ministry (that is, I assumed I’d get paid to do church work). I could see the future, clear and bright. Today nothing is as I imagined it would be. (I am not paid to do church work, for example.) In most ways, things are better than I imagined. But the road from there to here has been full of detours and byways I couldn’t have anticipated. These changes in direction used to worry me, because I viewed following God’s will as a lot like hopping on a conveyor belt. You have to get on at the right time in order to experience all God’s blessings. Make the wrong choice and God’s best will pass you by—a lifetime of disappointment the consequence for a moment’s doubt.

I’ve learned over the years that’s not how God works. I’ve learned that the way forward is seldom clear. Certainly not as clear as I’d like. Here are a few other things I’ve learned about calling and obedience that I hope will encourage you:

Sometimes calling is a moving target.

Sometimes God’s directions are clear and specific. God said to Ananias, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul” (Acts 9:11). Sometimes God’s directions are vague. God said to Saul, “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do” (Acts 9:6).

Some people have a clear, single calling that they pursue all their lives. I envy those people. My experience is that God gives me a glimpse of the big picture, sends me off, and says, “you will be told what you are to do.”

Consider Abraham. He is one of the most important figures in the Old Testament, the father of the nation of Israel. God’s initial calling to Abraham was vague: “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). It was 25 years between this initial calling and the birth of Isaac, the promised son. And there were lots of detours in those 25 years.

Don’t be discouraged if that’s how God works with you. It doesn’t mean the work before you is less important or influential or consequential. It just means you have to become comfortable with uncertainty. Following Jesus isn’t the same as following a career path with a series of relatively predictable stages. Following Jesus is an invitation to walk where Jesus leads, and Jesus has a high tolerance for winding side roads.

Waiting time doesn’t have to be wasted time.

For several months after I graduated college, I worked as a grader in a lumber mill (watch from 0:25–1:45 here for a visual). In return for spending fifty hours a week in a sweltering metal building filled with screaming machinery, I earned $7.50 an hour.

I was there because I was waiting, trying to figure out what to do next. Day after day I walked from the mill to the post office during the afternoon break to check the mail for a grad school acceptance letter. A young man covered in sawdust looking for a way out, I was basically a character in a Bruce Springsteen song.

Sometimes the most important things that happen to us happen in the periods of waiting between major events. With God, waiting time doesn’t have to be wasted time.

Here’s an example: Joseph received a glimpse of his future when he was seventeen years old. He was his father’s favorite son and he had a dream that his brothers and parents bowed down to him (Genesis 37:5–10). More than 20 years later, Joseph was second in command in all of Egypt, and his vision became a reality (Genesis 42:6–7).

Between those two events — the vision and the fulfillment — there was a lot of waiting. But the waiting wasn’t wasted. The waiting was preparation. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, a significant bummer, to be sure (Genesis 37:28). But as a slave, he ran the household of a powerful Egyptian official and learned to manage a staff, handle finances, and operate within the social world of the Egyptian elite.

Later a false accusation landed Joseph in prison — another setback (Genesis 39:19–20). But as a prisoner, he quickly became the lead servant of the captain of the guard (Genesis 39:20–23). In this role he learned to distribute food, manage resources, and navigate the Egyptian court bureaucracy.

All of this waiting and working prepared Joseph to become the second in command in all of Egypt (Genesis 41:41–43). Yes, God was working all these circumstances for His purposes and glory. But he also used these times of waiting to teach Joseph practical skills that he would use in the future. The waiting time was never wasted time.

If you’re stuck and waiting and are desperate to know what’s next, pray that God will help you see the value of your waiting time. In God’s hands, no experience has to be wasted.

Don’t confuse “easy and hard” with “right and wrong.”

Some people are tempted to believe that they will know when they’ve found their calling because it will be the easy, natural thing. It’s the job or activity that uses all your gifts and leverages all your strengths. It’s the thing that makes all the pieces fit together. My dad used to tell me, “Find something you love to do and you’ll never ‘work’ a day in your life.” I appreciate the sentiment, but finding that thing can become a terrible burden. And if you add a spiritual layer to the search, then anytime you experience hardship or resistance in your work, you’ll be tempted to view it as a sign that you haven’t found God’s calling — because it’s hard.

Other people are tempted to believe that they will know when they’ve found their calling because it will be the sacrificial, impossible thing. It’s the job or activity that requires total dependence on God and points out all your weaknesses. It’s the cross you have to bear for obedience. You’ll know you found your calling when you stop having any fun! If that’s how you understand calling, then anytime you experience joy or delight in your work, you’ll be tempted to view it a sign that you haven’t found God’s calling — because it’s too easy.

There is no easy calling. God is restoring creation, redeeming sinners, and bringing all things under the headship of Jesus. Whatever our specific role in life may be, it is a partnership with God in those activities. Some of us plant. Some of us water. All our work is blessed by God, who is making things grow (1 Corinthians 3:6–9).

And that means sometimes obedience means stepping into a season of rest (easy). Sometimes obedience means stepping into a storm (hard).

Do the next right thing.

Most of us can’t know what God wants us to do ten years from now. Let’s be honest: most of us don’t know what we want us to do ten years from now.

And even if we did, by some miracle, know the future, we don’t live in the future. We live in the present. If our goal is to be obedient to God’s calling, we have to take seriously the space-time reality we inhabit. We can’t be obedient tomorrow. That, in part, is what Jesus meant when he said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). We can only be obedient today.

That means that instead of trying to make the next five decisions today, God asks us to simply make the next right decision, to take the next faithful step.

In my experience, doing the next right thing over and over means that, in retrospect, your steps will look ordered and clear. You can’t always see the peak of the mountain from the base, but you can see the entire path from the peak.

Trust that the God who calls you is good.

All of this will be terrifying if you don’t believe the God who calls you is good and is for you. For many, many years I believed that I had one chance to get it right, that I probably wouldn’t, and that God would be angry with me for my failure forever. I believed, in short, that God was great but I doubted that God was good. And an almighty God who isn’t good is an almighty terror.

Now if I may be perfectly honest, this is where I struggle still. Because I know in my head that God is both great and good. I know he doesn’t hide his blessing behind his back and make us guess which hand it’s in. But I still feel that deep fear that God might not be good after all in periods of transition and disruption.

And I’m in one of those periods now. I’m sitting, as I revise these reflections, in a folding camp chair near the front window of our new apartment in Chicago. (The reason for the camp chair is that our belongings have not yet arrived; they come tomorrow.) In the last ten years, my family has moved three times: to New York City, then to Phoenix, and now to Chicago. Each time we’ve been sure we were responding to a call from God. But this move has been stressful. It’s been hard on the kids. It’s been expensive. And for all those reasons, I’ve second guessed the decision to move. (Like in the last few minutes.) No—I’ve second guessed the goodness of God. I’ve had these flashes of panic that I’ve done something foolish and that God looks on, arms crossed and shaking his head, saying, You’ve really done it this time. And that because I’ve done it—me—however noble and spiritual my intentions, God’s gonna leave me to suffer the consequences.

And so I preach the gospel to myself. I remind myself that in Christ I see that God leverages his almighty-ness for our flourishing. I remind myself that Jesus does not call us to be savvy and strategic but to be faithful. And that my confidence lies not in my shrewd decision making but in his inexhaustible grace.

So now you realize that this entire post is self talk. I hope it might be helpful to you nonetheless. Most of all, I hope it helps you move forward with confidence that our Great God is also good, and that he is always working in us and for us, whether we see it or feel it or not.