Jerry Sittser taught from his book “the will of God as a way of Life wrote :
God’s Greater Purpose In addition to listening, we should also consider God’s greater purpose and meditate on his glorious redemptive plan. Two spiritual masters, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis de Sales, have written a great deal about this issue. They suggest that we should study God’s purposes as they are revealed in Scripture and thus come to understand the “big picture” of what God is up to. As Ignatius writes, I must have an aim and end for which I am created, which is the praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul. At the same time I must remain indifferent and free from any inordinate attachments so that I am not more inclined of disposed to take the thing proposed than to reject it, nor to relinquish rather to accept it.9
Keeping Perspective Finally, we should keep perspective. Lynda wrote her last letter just before she died. The recipients of that letter, friends living in the Midwest, mailed a photocopy of the letter back to me. Her concluding line reflected her philosophy so well: “I’m trying to live my whole life in the light of eternity.” An eternal perspective will affect how we make choices. It stresses the important over the urgent, need over want, service over pleasure, people over things. A seminary teacher told me just as I was beginning my first pastoral charge, “People and the Word of God are eternal. Most everything else is temporal. Make sure you invest in the eternal.”
Choosing is Believing
So we should listen for God’s voice, discern God’s purpose, and keep perspective. Still the time comes when we must make a specific decision, choosing one pathway and turning away from others. Can we ever know for sure that the choices are the will of God? If so, how? What criteria should we employ to judge the success of our choice?
Success itself is a dangerous criterion to use. If we judge the wisdom of our choices by how successful the outcome is, we will become confused and disillusioned in a very short time. Does success, whatever that means—verify that we have chosen God’s will and failure indicate that we have missed it? Not necessarily. It depends on what we mean by success and failure. ~ Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan 49530, 2000, 2004) p.99-102 (continued)
