The will of God

I've recently begun to think of God's will in a more abstract - and less specific - manner.

This may be faulty but from my experiences in the last year, I've started to believe that God cares less about the little decisions I make and more about the way I react and handle the consequences of said decisions. When things blow up in my face, do I flip the bitch switch and let my frustration overwhelm me? Or do I take a deep breath, assess the situation and then talk to Him? Am I quick to throw a pity party for myself rather than try to view the circumstances as an opportunity?

Unless you're choosing between "sin" and "not sin", I think God is going to be pretty even-handed if you ask Him what to do. "Should I have raunchy, unprotected sex with this dirty hobo who offered me cocaine?" isn't exactly the same as "Should I take this new job opportunity in another city or stay with the one I'm at?" and I think God is going to urge you to analyze the possibilities of each respective path.

Ultimately, this goes to the truth that you can't screw up God's plans by taking a wrong turn. Things might be crazy good in that new job once you take it and maybe the old one laid a bunch of people just after you left. It's easy to say that God lead you to making the choice you did and perhaps it's a moot point to even think about such things, but what if you hadn't? What if you stayed and wound up getting fired? Would that mean you thwarted God's great plan? Or, perhaps, God's plan allows for our human free will and while He gives us the tools and information needed, it's up to us to maturely and intelligently use it?

I made a choice last year that wound up causing me a lot of emotional turmoil and pain but, at the same time, has grown my faith and relationship with Christ. The amount of knowledge that's been crammed into the last six months alone is probably twice what I've garnered from the prior 20 years. Initially I thought I'd missed some sign from God back when I'd prayed and discussed the decision with Him because it was so damn painful. Eventually I came to realize that things had unfolded just so, that I was able to step up to where I am. But it made me wonder - had I made the opposite choice, does that mean I would have missed out on growing?

Less time needs to be spent on wondering which path to take. I need to start using the brain God gave me to make the smartest decisions I'm capable of and then trusting that even if something unforseen comes up and wrecks everything, He's not only able to fix it but He knew about it before hand.