Photo by Annalisa Barelli
This I believe: God enjoys observing my life and is always interested in the choices I make—but He absolutely 100% respects my right to make them. We have to acknowledge that responsibility before we can commit our lives to anything. That is what makes the journey joyful—we are always in the process of learning to submit our choices to Him—not because He is a tyrannical autocrat, but because He knows what is best for us. I want to choose what He wants—but it can get tricky.
So what is God up there doing while I’m using my free will to make these choices for Him? I think He is active…He oversees and guides (and sometimes steers) to use my choices to make me into a better person. That’s the whole point to “As a man sows, so shall he reap…” isn’t it? He is never a taskmaster—His parameters are wider than my imagination. But if my life is a journey back to His presence (it has to be, doesn’t it?), then it is His Spirit that will keep me moving forward, and I cannot con His Spirit. The righteous shall live by faith.
If we think of the choices we make as steps on the path of our journey, it clears up the picture, doesn’t it? The old expression: one step forward, two step back…isn’t that exactly what we don’t want to do? How many kids do you see that aren’t hurrying toward Disneyland when it is right in front of them? Hard knocks and all—don’t we know in our hearts it’s meant to be joyful? It only takes one realization: doing the right thing is more fun than being selfish. Operate on that one principle and the path is going to get smoother and smoother.
Oh yeah, a caveat: you can’t make the journey alone. You can bring along as many others as is blessedly possible, but you can’t come alone. Everyone with you is your brother and sister and the best thing you can do is make their journeys more joyful. Another thing: you are not the leader and you never will be (even if you are a general or a CEO or a politician). You don’t know the way—only He does—you have to follow. Wow. For what? The abundant life He promises. He knows the way. What do you trust more, your perception or His? That is the beginning of faith, which is the first step on the joyful journey.
Dallin, beautiful; well done; yes!
Bill Dreyer