Knowing God's Will

College is nothing if not a series of question marks: what should I major in? how should I handle this roommate conflict? what will my future hold? how can I avoid Friday classes? should I be in this dating relationship? is this woman/man 'the one?' All important stuff.

So to start off our brand-spanking-new "Grow Deeper" seminar series, IV at UNC is hosting a three-week seminar called "Knowing God's Will." Like most of the seminars we're running, we've invited a local pastor to facilitate the time.

I'm thankful to have someone else leading it. But of course, I have my thoughts on the subject.

My primary grid for understanding this whole mysterious process of knowing God's will is this: it is the process of seeking God out, trusting him, asking for guidance, and doing this in the context of community that is making us holy, teaching us faithfulness, and shaping our hearts and lives to be more like God intends them to be. Knowing God's will is all about establishing and learning healthy and faithful processes more than it is about the end result. It is the process that is most often making us holy, not the product.

This is not to under-sell the reality that God has gone ahead of us and prepared good works for us to do. Nor is it to under-sell the good news that God has given us gifts, he loves to give us good work that is a blessing to us and to the world around us.

But what this process-oriented posture does is take our eyes off the narrow focus of the immediate issue at hand and it recognizes a larger thing that's happening: God's Spirit at work to make his people into his image, into the woman or man God is slowly and inexorably shaping them to be. This is ultimately what God is always about, whether it lands us in a coal factory or in the corner office of a Fortune 500 company.