This is a question that has come up a lot over the past month. An echo of His voice that I have heard, but rarely actually listened to. Not because of pride or arrogance. More like laziness and apathy. Caught up in my own head and thoughts so much that I have overlooked the obvious.
Over the last three weeks I have heard messages in church about bringing Jesus into our work—the Mission in the Middle series. I have sat in a small group reading Timothy Keller’s Every Good Endeavor. In the spare hours I have been reading Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something. None of that felt random. Those inputs sparked a reminder of that distant echo:
What are you waiting for?
There are several thoughts that have been floating around in my mind as to why I have avoided getting moving in spiritual areas of my life. Honestly, none of those reasons make much of a difference. I seem to be constantly searching for something—some purpose, some mission—all the while life charges on around me. Lost conversations. Missed opportunities to give time to those who need it most. Overlooked needs of the people around us because we are so focused on our own issues.
“What is my purpose?” I hear that a lot these days. From small group friends. From golf buddies. Everyone seems held captive by that singular question. We all know God has a plan for our lives. I do not believe we are supposed to wait for that plan to materialize before we move. I believe we should be moving. Not passive. Involved in each and every minute of every day.
DeYoung put language to what I was already being told.
We keep asking the question the wrong way
“What is God’s will for my life?” usually means: Which job? Which city? Which person? Which assignment? Which next big thing?
Those are real questions. They are not the first question.
DeYoung distinguishes three ways we use the phrase “God’s will,” and most of the circling I have been doing comes from mixing them up.
God’s will of decree is what He has sovereignly ordained. It will stand. I do not need to discover it in advance in order to be faithful today. Scripture is plain that God declares the end from the beginning and that He works all things according to the counsel of His will.
God’s will of desire is what God commands and delights in. This one is not hidden. It is written down.
- “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
- Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18)
- Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)
- Love the Lord with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)
God’s will of direction is the category that keeps people stuck: the specific next step we think God wants us to guess correctly before we are allowed to act. DeYoung’s claim is simple. God does not burden His people with finding that secret map first.
Trusting the will of decree is good. Following the will of desire is obedience. Waiting around for the will of direction is a mess.
That last sentence explains a lot of my last month. I have been waiting on a clearer purpose while conversations were happening in front of me. While people needed time. While ordinary work and ordinary faithfulness were already on the table.
The delay can look holy and still be lazy
The conventional approach sounds humble. We want to please God. We do not want to waste a life. We do not want the regret of choosing “Plan B” when God had a “Plan A.”
I know that instinct. I have used it.
DeYoung is not cynical about the motive. He is honest about what often sits underneath it. Sometimes we are timid. Sometimes we want a life with no risk and no leftovers. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by options. And sometimes we are not waiting in faith at all. We are stalled.
For me it has not been a dramatic rebellion. It has been getting lost in my own head. Apathy dressed up as thoughtfulness. Searching for a mission so intently that I missed the mission already in reach: the person in front of me, the work in front of me, the need I walked past because I was still trying to figure out my purpose.
Keller’s point in Every Good Endeavor and the Mission in the Middle sermons land in the same place. Jesus does not only belong in the “spiritual” hours. He belongs in the middle of the week. In the job. In the ordinary. Purpose is not something that finally appears after the calendar clears. It is lived in the middle.
DeYoung names a habit that is easy to baptize: tinkering. We stay in motion without committing. We keep our options open and call it discernment. Searching for God’s will becomes an accomplice to not moving. Instability gets rebranded as spiritual sensitivity.
That is not maturity. That is drift with a quiet time.
God is not a Magic 8-Ball
The popular method looks like this: pray until a feeling confirms it, watch for an open door, put out a fleece, land on a random verse, wait for the shiver, then announce that God told you what to do.
I have wanted that kind of clarity. It would be easier than taking responsibility.
DeYoung argues that this approach fails for several reasons.
It spends enormous energy on non-moral decisions—this path or that path—while the decisions heaven cares about most are already clear: Will I be holy? Will I tell the truth? Will I love the people in my house? Will I put away bitterness? Will I show up for the person who needs time today? Will I do my work as unto the Lord?
It makes God look sneaky, as if He has hidden the one correct path and will only whisper it to people who get the technique right.
It feeds anxiety. Worry is rehearsing the future before it arrives.
It undermines responsibility. “God told me” can place a decision beyond counsel and beyond correction.
And it is hopelessly subjective. Impressions feel authoritative in the moment. They rarely look as clear in hindsight.
God can do unusual things. Nobody who reads Scripture should pretend otherwise. The issue is not whether He can guide in surprising ways. The issue is whether He has promised a private briefing for every fork in the road. He has not.
Apart from the Spirit working through the Word, I should not expect a second Bible to drop into my feelings.
A better question than “What is my purpose?”
DeYoung keeps sending the reader back to the decision that actually sits in the center.
The daily choice is not first the perfect assignment. It is whether I will seek God’s kingdom or my own. Whether I will submit to Christ’s lordship or keep negotiating. Whether I will live by His words or by my preferences.
In other words: Will I live for Christ and die to self?
If that is happening, I am already standing inside God’s will while I choose among lawful options. Augustine’s old line, handled carefully, still helps: love God, then do what you want. The first clause has to be full of Scripture. Otherwise we use it to bless whatever we already intended to do.
God’s will is that we become holy and glad in Jesus. Not happy as the world counts happiness—untroubled, optimized, finally sure of our brand. Glad in God. Set apart for Him. Once that is the aim, a lot of freedom opens up.
I may work here or there. I may serve in this way or that way. I do not need a cosmic announcement before I can give someone my attention, tell the truth, or bring Jesus into the middle of ordinary work. God is not a career counselor who will flunk me for picking the “wrong” honorable path.
He is a Father who has already told me the kind of man to become.
Keep the tools. Stop waiting on them.
Christians reach for familiar instruments. DeYoung does not say they are useless. He says they become foolish when we ask them to do what only wisdom and Scripture can do.
Open doors. If God gives a good and necessary opportunity, receive it with thanks. Do not assume that ease means yes and difficulty means no. Some doors should be knocked on. Some hard work is still the right work.
Fleeces. Gideon asked for a sign because he was afraid. That story is not a template for mature decision-making.
Random verses. A sentence yanked out of context is not guidance.
Impressions. A thought that arrives while I am praying is still a thought. If it cannot survive Scripture, counsel, and sober judgment, it is not a voice from heaven.
The better category is wisdom.
Read the Bible to renew the mind, not to extract a coded answer about next Tuesday. Seek counsel from people who fear God and know me well enough to tell me the truth. Pray for wisdom, clean motives, and courage to do what I already know is right.
Then move.
Some of us need to think longer before we act. I have done enough thinking. I need to act after I have thought.
The mission was not missing
This is what the last month has been pressing on me.
Purpose does not arrive as a completed briefing. It is practiced in the minutes I keep treating as filler. The conversation I almost skip. The person who needs time. The need I see and walk past because I am still searching for a larger assignment. The work sitting in front of me that I have not yet offered to Christ.
Keller is right that work is not a waiting room for ministry. DeYoung is right that obedience does not require a hidden map. The church has been saying the same thing in a different key: bring Jesus into the middle.
So the echo is not mysterious anymore.
We all know God has a plan. We are not supposed to sit still until it materializes. We are supposed to be moving. Not passive. Present in each minute of the day we actually have.
Live for God. Obey the Scriptures. Think of others before yourself. Be holy. Love Jesus. And as you do those things, do the next faithful thing in front of you.
I have heard the question.
I do not need another reason.
What are you waiting for?
Just do something.
Reflecting on Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something; Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor; and our church’s Mission in the Middle series.
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