I started this out by railing on how people say "God's Will" all the time and I don't like that term and don't know what it means, but upon further consideration this is what I think.
First, I think of will as desire or wanting. To say God's will is saying what God wants, as in "it's God's will that I don't fornicate." I think there are 2 ways to view "will:" one as moral decisions and another as not moral decisions. For the former, his will is that all be perfect or as close as possible to perfection and that's the end of that. The latter is for decisions without moral considerations such as where to live or work. The former seems clear so I'll deal with the latter.
It seems to me that these decisions have various degrees of "good." If I am undecided about whether to live in city A or B, there may be a place I would be happier and more useful but it's probable I can't know it. Plus, my happiness and efficacy are largely dependent on my moral decisions so the 2 forms of will are joined. I often get distracted with "God's Will" because I think of the morality form of will and think that if I was perfect the non-moral decisions wouldn't matter much because I would be hugely effective wherever I was. However, maybe there is a form of God's will that makes sense - where I can be most efficient for God. So for specific questions it's good to seek God's will.
But then what about my whole life? Does God have a "plan" for my life?
First, the wordplay of "how can an omni...God have a plan?" messes me up, especially the time-dependence part. A plan is sequential whereas God sees all time at once. But I don't know what to say to that so I'll move on.
It's not useful for me to think of God's "plan" for my life because again I think of his moral plan or how I think he wants us to figure it out more on our own and not do the "if it's God's will it will happen so I'll stop thinking" bit. Thinking of "plan" as made up of many little decisions all dealing with efficacy makes more sense to me - just an extrapolation of the God's will part. But then is it really a plan because depending on moral decisions the plan can change? It's not a plan if God sees it as we see history.
In short, the "God's plan" part is very confusing to me - I need to think of it more. At this point I don't think God has a plan for my life because it seems like a nonsensical question. (Good thing the sermons at my church are boring so I have half an hour every Sunday to do nothing but think because I sure ain't listening.)
4 comments:
so in short if i say "God's plan for your life is to move to Hungary and hang with your sis" you wouldn't believe it? too bad. by the way, off topic, but our pipes just exploded here and i'm dying cause of the smell. does that entice you to come even more?
Haha, sorry sis. It would take massive amounts of money for me to be convinced that Hungary is God's plan for my life. If that ever happened I promise I will buy you a large house - the newest one in the country so just slightly older than McCain. When are you guys moving back to the states?
God told me in a vision that you are to move to Chicago. You can debate God's will, but who wants to go against a holy vision?
The best way to determine God's will is that when someone suggests a thing is God's will in a crowd people stand up and start shouting... "GOD WILLS IT!!!"
By the way rebeccascott1111... you probably need some glasses for that vision... seems a little fuzzy. ML is the center of the universe, and therefore the center of God's will, particularly for someone whose spent a fair amount of time studying the universe.
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