Something to Ponder

Even though many of us pray "...Thy will be done..." at least once a week, understanding, accepting, and living within the will of God remains a hard thing for us.  However we might define it in Sunday School, too many times the will of God becomes what we think God should do, or perhaps, even something that is synonymous with our own will.  I often remember Wendell Berry's character, Jayber Crow, wondering how to pray after praying "....Thy will be done.." as the Sunday morning ritual taught him to do.  The question, "Is there any prayer after this one?" is a question worth pondering.    

The will of God is another thing that causes a lot of pondering to rise forth from our souls.  Like the folks who so easily proclaim "God is good!" when their loved one comes home from the hospital instead of being carried to the funeral home, it is easy to think that we are in God's will when life is full of fragrant roses and aromatic coffee. It is another thing to consider that we are deeply inside God's will when we walk in troubling and dark times.  The Apostle Paul understood that the will of God is not determined by circumstance as he wrote to the Philippians, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty."  (4:11)  In another place he spoke of the trials of his life through witnessing, "Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning.  Three times I have been shipwrecked...in danger from rivers, dangers from bandits, danger from Gentiles...hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked."  (II Corinthians 11:24-27).  

These words do not speak of a man walking down a smooth path in a rose garden, but they do speak of a man who knew his life was being lived inside the will of God.  This will of God thing truly is something to ponder.  God sometimes puts us in places and situations we would not choose.  Why this happens when the way is almost too hard to walk, I have often struggled to understand.  Maybe the will of God is less about circumstances and more about faith.  Maybe it is not so much about our ability to walk the easy path, but to walk the unseen path with obedience and trust.  Again, something to ponder.