Against the Wind

When I get off the train in the morning and head to my office in midtown Manhattan, it seems I am always buffeted with crowded sidewalks. And as it is in our life, it seems like everyone is going in the opposite direction. It certainly would be easier to go with the flow, no resistance, and at least I wouldn’t always feel like I was in someone’s way. Often times there exists a dichotomy between what our will and the will of God is in our lives. We want to go one direction and the Lord seems to be telling us to go another direction. What is God’s will for us, what direction does He want us to go and how do we determine His will in our daily walk? Determining His will in everyday activities is not always that easy.

I recently heard a story about an office manager who decided that she was going on a diet. She enlisted all the ladies in the office to join her in this effort, strength and encouragement in numbers. As they started sure enough they begin losing weight, lots of it. Everything was going great until one morning this office manager comes in with three dozen donuts. Everybody was flabbergasted at her actions. When asked, she began to explain to them that it was God’s will that she bring donuts to work. She said, ever since we started this diet, I changed my route to work, because my old route took me by the Dunkin Donuts, so to remove the temptation; I changed the way I travel to and from the office. But, she said, today I forgot to take the new route and found myself in front of Dunkin Donuts. I prayed, Lord, if indeed it by your will that I should stop and buy donuts, let there be a parking place right at the front door, and I’ll accept that as an indication that buying donuts is your will in my life today. And sure enough the 15th time around the block there it was, an open parking place right at the front door.

Here is an individual who is desperate to see her will done. So desperate that she is willing to convince herself that it is God’s will.

Jonah was a man who was also desperate to see his will done, so desperate in fact that he was willing to do the complete opposite of what God had asked him to do. In the book of Jonah 1:1-3 we read: Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah had his own idea, which was different from the will of God. Jonah didn’t want the people, the wicked people of Niniveh to be saved. He thought God would have mercy on them, and he thought if he went the opposite direction, they would receive the punishment that he thought they deserved. Jonah was wrong. Sometimes our thoughts, desires, our flesh gets in the way of doing what God wants us to do. We even think that it is impossible for us to do whatever it is that God wants’ us to do. But the simple fact is if God guides, God provides. He will provide everything that we need to do what He has called us for. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Grace and Peace