God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways

Spirit and Soul Must Intersect

What I had been feeling all those years was that my spirit person and my soul person were running parallel.  I knew many of the relevant truths and principles of the Bible.  But what I came to learn about God and Jesus and grace and forgiveness and hope would just not travel the eighteen inches from my head to my heart.  I so badly wanted to experience them for myself.

It was almost as though something was blocking the way for Jesus to move from my head (knowing about Jesus and the Bible) to my heart (knowing Jesus personally and intimately).  I literally felt myself becoming out of balance and top heavy.  Almost like a tall building with too small of a foundation.  Or a huge corporation with a poorly developed infrastructure. Growing in my knowledge and understanding of the Christian way, but stagnant in my implementation of what I was learning at a level beyond just “behavior modification.”  I had become a pretender.  A counterfeit Christian.  The person I really was and the person that people perceived me to be just didn’t line up.  And I knew it.

In my counseling practice today, I have at least one client every single day tell me they are facing a similar dilemma.  “Why can I not experience all that I know God has for me?  What am I missing?  What am I doing wrong?”

I repeatedly thank God for walking with me through the pain of my past, and for giving me the opportunity to know more of His love in the midst of each experience.

Author Troy Dobbs in his book, The Blessed Life That No One Really Wants, illuminates what I’m saying in his unpacking of the story of Joseph (son of Jacob) in the Old Testament: “Through a series of providentially painful events – false accusations, unjust imprisonment, and being forgotten to name a few – God eventually positioned Joseph (for the ultimate purpose He had created for Joseph).”

Providentially Painful Events

I did an online search for a relevant definition of the word “providential.”  Here is what I found: “Having foresight to make provision beforehand.”  Hmm… so God knew in advance that Joseph needed to go through each and every one of the difficult aspects of his personal life journey in order to be fully equipped for the greater purpose God had planned for him at a point later in his future?  Through numerous unexpected, undesirable events in Joseph’s life, God “positioned” Joseph, so that – at exactly the right time – he would be prepared to participate in the ultimate purpose for which he was created.  God created Joseph to share unconditional love with people in his life who least expected it and probably felt they least deserved it – his own brothers who had rejected and abandoned him, and even considered killing him.

If this was true for Joseph, let’s trust that it is also true for you and for me.  What we’ve experienced in our past, and what we’re facing presently are necessary components of what we’ll see unfold in our blessed future!  God wants to turn our tests into our testimony.  He wants to turn our messes into our message.  He wants to turn our broken pieces into masterpieces!

Probably Not the Route We Would Have Chosen

I’ve found that many Christians have been taught (or assumed) that God’s will is a straight, pain-free line that sounds something like this:

The better I am… at being good, making good choices, being with good people, having a good marriage, making a good living, raising good kids who make good choices and grow up and marry good people who also wants to make good choices and have a good family, being good in my career, and having a good plan for retirement …the more I’m living “God’s will.”

Unfortunately, this was the path the Pharisees took, believing that if they learned, memorized, taught, perfectly demonstrated, and held others accountable to the 613 laws of the Jewish Torah, they would stand righteous before God.  Jesus wasn’t too big of a fan of that path.  In fact, He intended the path of our lives to look quite the opposite.

I recently ran across a simple hand-drawn illustration on social media that really captured this for me.  The upper frame – “Your Plan” – showed a character riding a bicycle from the beginning of a perfectly straight, unhindered line extending slightly upward toward a checkered flag at the end of the line at the far right.  In contrast, the lower frame – “God’s Plan for You” – took the rider on a much more complicated journey.  There were hills and valleys, dense wilderness and wide open spaces, deep water and no water at all, thunderstorms and sunshine, cliffs to fall from and steps to climb up, all leading to the checkered flag on higher ground at the far right.

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