Comments on: The One Right Thing

By: xen

xen — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 02:10:26 +0000

Great post, Steve. I love it. I have also tried in many ways to follow God’s path. Things worked smoothly for almost ten years and wherever I went, I saw signs that I was on the right path. I made a personal covenant with the Lord that I would keep doing what I was doing for Him.
Then tragedy happened and I began to question if this tragedy is a sign from God that I should stop, or is it from dark forces which would like to prevent me from doing my work. Nothing is scarier than wondering if your path is God’s or another more sinister thing. I kept praying and reading the Bible. I laid out options A, B, C, etc. When some options closed, I figured they weren’t meant for me. When some options opened, I felt thrilled and a bit afraid. Was this what God wanted? Was I as committed to His will as I’d professed? Sometimes these forks come to challenge our faith. We might come out renewed or emerge as doubters. Sometimes we have to be weak, in order to rely only on God’s strength. And we realize we are humble, and that we need Him more than ever. I’ll pray for you Steve.

By: Grandfather

Grandfather — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 06:09:22 +0000

Sometimes I think I should wait three days before posting on the Internet. Anyway I need to clarify: The little prayer for God to guide comes after all the ordinary things. I learn what I can about my options, weigh the pros and cons, and talk with family and friends. Then, on top of that, I pray more or less, God let me go where you want me to go, and do not let me go where you do not want me to go. Over a period of years, I have seen this prayer make a big difference.

Once the difference was dramatic. Something I wanted fell through, and when I learned of it I felt the hand of God on the back of my neck. I thought this must be what a kitten feels like, when its mother picks it up. Anyway as the years went by, it became clear that what God gave me was better for me, than what I had tried to get, even though what I tried to get was what everyone thought was desirable.

One comment: The popular culture and (unhappily) most Christians believe that any talk at all about God’s will being different from one’s desires, comes from a dangerous fanaticism or mental illness. Many psychologists think the entire Christian religion is harmful, and many think that Christian sexual morality in particular is harmful. It should be obvious that one does not go to such people, for advice on discerning God’s will.

By: Steve Gershom

Steve Gershom — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:37:53 +0000

That’s a great post, Marie. Thanks for the link. (That Steve G. wasn’t me.)

By: Marie

Marie — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:37:01 +0000

I don’t know if you are the Steve G referred to in the blog post (not mine) I linked to below, but I first read it 4 years ago and I still think about it. It’s a slightly different question then what you are asking, but it clearly resonates with me.

http://www.conversiondiary.com/2008/05/looking-for-tow-truck-driver.html

By: Grandfather

Grandfather — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:39:56 +0000

Traditionally there were twelve steps to spiritual perfection. Step One was simple selfishness. Two was being nice to others, to get what you wanted. Three was actually caring what happened to other people. Step Four was when you started to wonder what God might want. The twelfth step was when there was no difference between your will and God’s will.

Peter Kreeft said some years ago the books about the spiritual life that were written in the past assumed the reader was at least at Stage Four. Unfortunately, he said, most people in the modern age who read those books, are not that far, and so do not understand what they are reading.

No, it is not harmful to say one should seek God’s will in all things. It is harmful to imagine oneself a saint devoted to God’s will, when one is not.

God will guide, whenever you ask him to guide. Let him take your hand in a dark place, and trust him. If the place is not dark, pray simple prayers such as my Protestant friends taught me forty years ago, “Open the doors where you want me to go, close to the doors where you do not want me to go, and I cover the doors with the Blood of Jesus.”

Does it work? Applying this kind of simple spirituality, about 25 years ago I went on a mission and accomplished what God sent me to do, by being a sacrificial lamb. It was very extraordinary and very painful to me.

Since then I have asked God if there was something else he wanted me to do, and he has given me much less dramatic things. The latest: post on “Steve Gershom’s” blog.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 02:36:28 +0000

And now, Steve, I have so much more sympathy for you…I posted this on my FB and now I’m getting flak for helping to lead people out of the Church! (??)

Which just leads us right back to the first sentence, “Grave harm has been done.”

By: Steve Gershom

Steve Gershom — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:49:43 +0000

Oh, I was hoping someone would mention that footnote.

By: Devra

Devra — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:29:14 +0000

This is something that has confused me for a long, long time, either not knowing the one right thing, or suspecting that I knew what the one right thing was but not wanting to do it. I don’t know if I could explain it any better than you just did. It did occur to me once when I was agonizing over whether we should move again, that maybe God didn’t even care so much whether we lived in one place or another as how we lived when we got there. It wasn’t as if, if we picked place A and that turned out to be the one right place, then the deciding part of life, or the acting part of life, would be over.

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:47:02 +0000

Great reflection, Steve. You have a beautiful understanding of vocation.

I also really appreciate footnote 2. Excellent.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:44:17 +0000

Thank you so much for this post – I really need to read this today!!