Enjoy the Journey

A friend recently asked me in frustration how we could possibly know God's will for our lives? Do we take it for granted that when the Lord doesn't bless our efforts with success, it's an indication that He may not want us to take those paths? Or do we look at our lives and try to discern the "closed doors and open windows" of our journeys as showing us the paths we should take?

I guess in some way, we could see God's hand in the various opportunities and blessings that either come to us or not. But I believe rather that we cannot discern God's will in our lives by a standard of success or failure, nor can we judge His Holy plans for us by expecting concrete results that we can see and measure.

The reason is because faith is more than success, and perfection cannot always be seen in obvious results. We are so used to measuring our lives by results that we forget that Christianity is about faithfulness, not success.

To believe in God and love Him does not necessarily guarantee success, good health and material blessings. In fact, a real Christian can always look forward to the cross as the only guarantee...but despite the painful difficulties of that...a great sweetness can still be found in our crosses.

I think that God's will is simply for us to be happy, not just for a day or a month or for some years, but for eternity. In a word, it is God's will that we should be SAVED, in order to know and enjoy indescribable happiness with Him, both here and in heaven.

Everything that happens to us here, both crosses and blessings, are meant to help us on that journey and secure our salvation. To do God's will is to find the cheerfulness and humility in accepting all that happens to us with faith, confidence and peace, since all things come from His divine hand for our good.

As people, we are interested in doing things all the time, in the expectation that what we do will make things better, brighter and more meaningful. God on the other hand is not interested in doing things, He is interested in saving us.

So whether we have our prayers for a certain need answered or not, whether we succeed in a certain effort or not, or whether we win certain spiritual battles or not, God's will is not so much to be found in the end result but in the struggle, the journey, the via crucis that is sometimes so hard to bear.

In other words, God's will is found in accepting life's many challenges with faith and patience, since it is His will that whatever happens, we should learn things about ourselves and about our relationship with Him, and thus grow in our Christian journey, mature as good wine, take greater shape in the hands of the craftsman who moulds us, and everyday resemble more perfectly the image of His Son Jesus.

To help us achieve that, He sends us lessons in this life, whether that means having our prayers answered in certain ways or not. Heaven is the goal, everything else is only a tool to help us get there.

Everything that happens to us, good or bad, wil only have meaning if they help us on our way to eternal happiness.

And that includes marriage as well I guess. The most important thing is to find the spouse whom God desires for our sanctification and to aid us on that journey to Himself.

The search for love is always a great adventure. Unfortunately, finding love is not quite the same thing as shopping for clothes. I know what is beautiful and pleasant and graceful. But I cannot read hearts, and must depend on the Lord to help me discern.

Sadly it gets harder and harder to meet the right people. But we must take consolation in the knowledge that God does not give us desires to frustrate us, but to fulfill us. In love; let us always be ambitious, let us aim for eternity.

For those of us enjoying the embrace of someone special in our lives, let us give thanks for our partners, even as we continue to discern our vocation to love. For those of us still seeking a kindred soul, let us ask God to help us seek what he desires us to find, and to find what we seek.

But for all us us seeking God's will, let's celebrate what we find in the journey, allowing the Lord to take the wheels of our lives, and not echo with childish impatience as we continuously cry out from the back seat, "Are we there yet?"