I fondly remember reading the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a child. If you’re familiar with these books you’ll know what I mean (and you can skip to paragraph 2) and if not, just continue reading.
The author, R.A. Montgomery who first popularized the Choose Your Own Adventure concept passed away a few months ago. He helped make these a mainstream children’s book style, so much so there’s now even a Choose Your Own Adventure book for Missoulians.
When I first became a Christian, I thought of God’s Will as something like a CYOA story. As if there was a perfect combination of decisions that I needed to make in order to find God’s perfect plan for my life. Particularly, milestone decisions seemed to carry so much weight, choosing a college, a career, spouse, a home…etc. All these seemed so imperative to how much or how little God could accomplish in my life. Now, three plus decades in to my life, I see God’s will completely differently.
Now I understand that God is completely sovereign. Meaning he not only knows every choice I will face, but also what I will choose, and my decisions cannot thwart his plan. In Acts 17:26, we find that God even chose the time and place where I would live. There will be any number of good paths I will choose from in this life. I do not need to live in fear of wrong decisions as long as I am pursuing him first, and making decisions with prayerful consideration and with wisdom from other believers.
Living the Christian life is not about orchestrating every detail to achieve the best possible ending to the adventure of your Life. In God’s sovereignty there is freedom. We don’t need to stress about living perfectly, we just need to be intentional about living faithfully. God’s will is that we seek him with our entire being (Matthew 22:37), and pursuing a life of righteousness (Matthew 6:33). For most of us, this simply means living our everyday lives to the glory of God “whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Colossians 3:17).
Looking back on the last few years in particular I’ve seen God move in ways I could never have orchestrated or imagined. God has been faithful in working in and through my life, and he will be faithful in your life as well.
