Continued from ‘Overcoming Worry’: Jerry Sittser from “the Will of God as a Way of Life” wrote:
Every morning I pray that God will go ahead of me and prepare the way for what is going to happen that day. I pray him into the classroom and office and home. I ask him to protect me from temptation and keep my eyes peeled for signs of how he is working in my life. I visualize God clearing out a straight path for me to follow so that I can accomplish what is appropriate for each day. Isaiah’s comforting words come to mind:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.15
In addition to praying for the future, we can also prepare for it. One major way of doing this is to live well in the present. We can practice spiritual discipline, develop character, form lasting friendships, and become a person of faith. We can refine skills like computing and speaking and managing our resources responsibly. In doing so we will be better equipped to do whatever the future requires of us.
A good friend recently wrote me to express his own reflections on God’s will. “In our instantly gratifying world of today,” he wrote, “we have higher expectations of things coming to us on silver platters, including our vocational destiny.” He referred to Abraham Lincoln as an example of someone who faced “failures, humiliations, and frustrations” before achieving his goals and accomplishing God’s will. We should expect the same. My friend has personally endured much difficulty working for an inner city community center—“at a measly $4.55 an hour to babysit screaming kids and deal with irresponsible parents who did nothing but criticize the staff and the program.”
Yet the job inspired him to return to school and become a teacher. It helped him develop practical skills, creative lesson plans, and positive methods of communication, along with such character qualities as patience and endurance. Even the low wages worked to his advantage. “My service and experimental activities came as a donation under my control,” he wrote, which relieved him of the pressure of high expectations. He concluded, “That whole year was an example of preparation. Isn’t that in reality what most of life is? Every so often we celebrate the fruits of success but let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that God’s will means achieving a final product without preparation along the way.”
Finally, we should live in hope. Christians have every reason to have earthly hope. Though we are mortal and life is fragile, we can take comfort in the fact that “the sun will come up tomorrow.” . . . . God gave assurances of earthly hope to Noah after he survived the great flood. When dry land appeared and he released all the animals from the ark, Noah offered a sacrifice to God in gratitude for his deliverance. God then promised that he would never again destroy the earth in that way. The seasons would come and go, farmers would sow seeds and harvest corps, and children would grow up and live on their own. 16 God’s word to Noah ensures that tomorrow will be somewhat like today, that the natural world will function with some degree of regularity. Such earthly hope provides a good reason for us to live responsibly. As a mentor once told me, “Live today as if it were your last—but plan to live a lifetime.” ~Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, 2000, 2004), 138-39
