Listening to morning prayer on St. Mary's, Walthamstow Facebook live, (at 8:30 a.m. weekdays) you will hear, in Ordinary Time , the lines "Lord, you guide me with your counsel and afterwards receive me with glory".
For some time now, that statement has caught my attention. There was something about it that I felt needed exploring further. So I am writing this blog to do that.
Knowing "God's will" has to my perception, been something of a preoccupation of Evangelical religion in my lifetime. The quest of every Christian teenager leaving school and making decisions about what career path was often overshadowed with "What is God's Will for my life?" With the understandable trepidation that they would get it wrong. In the Torah, and Judaism, matters seem, to my view much more concrete and clear cut. If you were in a certain family, you were to be a priest, a Cohen, and if you were were not a decedant of Aaron, you were a Levite, and you had a religious role, in the Temple, but not a priest. Others followed in the footsteps of their parents. Jesus followed in the footsteps of his earthly father, Joseph, learning the trade of carpentry. John, the Baptist, should, on paper, have followed in Zechariah's footsteps and become a priest, but it turned out that he became the "voice of one calling in the desert,'Prepare the way of the Lord.' I could point to other Biblical people like Abraham, Samuel, and David who had very specific and clear direction as to God's will for their lives and they were able to follow this direction and to varying degrees of success, do God's will. (They often slipped up and did not do God's will, despite clear direction - and their failures often brought about serious consequences - Moses was not allowed to set foot in the promised Land, despite being the one to lead the Children out of Egypt and through the Wilderness - He, and all but two of the Generation who left Egypt, died in the Wilderness. Such narratives are often more than a cautionary note, and strike terror into the hearts of serious Bible believers, that they must not get it wrong, when it comes to doing God's will.
With maturity and experience of life, I would advise my younger self, and others who understandably want to know and do God's will, that we should simply follow our hearts, when it comes to making these big life choices. One's natural aptitutes, and what makes us happy are good indicators of what we do in life. That there is also great scope for "course correction" after embarking on a specific career path, realising that it is not really "our thing", we can do something else.
My Mum, Ruth, when she had completed her schooling, started training as a nurse. It became very apparent to her, after not too long, that nursing was not her thing. It was by no means an instantaneous switch, but after some years, and through some pretty random circumstances, she became an art teacher, and I would say, if there is such a thing as "God's will for your life", in the sense that it is like an architect's blueprint, then teaching would have been that thing for Mum.
To be honest, I am not sure now that God is concerned so much with the minutiae of our day-to-day, or even life decisions, be that in terms of career, or relationships, or where we live. I think, much higher on God's agenda, is How we live, day-to-day. What is our character? Not what we DO, but who we ARE, as people. If I look at the Gospels, I see Jesus us telling us in different ways, that how we treat one another is what identifies us as "one of His". Interesting that in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the religious people, the priest and levite, refused to be distracted from their "mission", in order to help the man in a crisis, but the supposedly secular Samaritan took time to take the man to an inn, and to pay, with clearly no expectation of reimbursement, where he could recover, despite also being "on a journey". I think that we can be so preoccupied with being "purpose-driven", that we become like the priests and the levites in the parables and not willing to divert or delay our journey. But it was the Samaritan, the "smelly Samaritan", who was a neighbour to the man attacked by robbers. It was the "smelly Samaritan" who was doing God's will on that day on the Jericho Road. (I know the Bible doesn't actually say "smelly Samaritan " but I am using that expression to put across how Jesus' Jewish hearer would have viewed Samaritans. Today we call the parable "The Good Samaritan ", and yes, he was a good and kind man. Let's not forget that this was a parable, and nor an actual person- he was a character conjured up in Jesus imagination to explain a principle. I am sure Jesus decision to use a Samaritan as the hero of his story was to emphasise his ordinariness as opposed to his goodness - and yet, he chose on that day to do the right thing for the man attacked by robbers. It is important to note that Jesus never refers to the Samaritan as Good. His goodness is reflected in his actions. )
Later on we read the list of qualities that mark people out as Spirit filled - the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23). If I might be so bold as to offer my own paraphrase of those verses - The kind of person who is Spirit-filled is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, good, kind, faithful (reliable), gentle and self-controlled. There is no law against being this kind of person.
When it says that God will guide us with His counsel I think it is more about being this kind of person, how to be this kind of person, having wisdom to do/say the right thing in specific circumstances, or the wisdom to NOT do/say anything in specific circumstances. We DO need God's guidance in our day-to-day lives to be the best ----- (fill in the blank with career/role/etc.) we can be moreso than choosing what that career/role is.
That said, while we should aspire to be that best person, we are fallable humans and will make mistakes. We will sometimes emulate the focused purpose-driven hard-nosed priest, instead of the empathetic generous Samaritan. Such is our humanity that on some days we will get out of the wrong side of the bed and we may be grumpy.
This is why part two of Psalm 73:24 is so important because, whether we have heard God's counsel and followed it, or completely ignored God's counsel and gone our own way, to our short term detriment perhaps, afterwards God receives us with His Glory.
Ultimately God's love for us does not depend on our effort or achievement but simply on the fact that God is God and God loves us. He will still love and receive us regardless or how good, faithful, kind, loving, etc we have been. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, God will receive you and celebrate your return with rejoicing - with Glory .
Selah
This poem I wrote with Psalm 73:24 in mind.
Guidance & Glory
When trouble strikes and things breakdown,
When you’ve lost your way.
What do you do when it’s all your fault, and
There’s no way to fix it, nowhere to hide?
Where do you go, when things go wrong, when it’s all falling apart?
Sometimes all we can manage is a deep heartfelt sigh.
There really are times that make no sense at all.
What do we do then, when we're at a loss? On whom then can we call?
But I do believe there is One we can call on in such a desperate season.
That’s God, our Saviour, who guides us with good reason,
God gives us strength to take each step, and listens as we pray.
We can rely on God to stay — right by our side.
God loves us and won’t desert us, God will see us through to the end.
Just like the man on the cross,
We'll hear our Saviour say,
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